The International Air Services Council (IASC), a juristic body established under the International Air Services Act and appointed in March last year after a year without one, following the coming to end of the term of the earlier Council in 2020, has whittled down a backlog of airline applications.
Chairperson Nomveliso Ntanjana, former principal legal counsel at the Competition Commission, said the council, comprising of herself, Nare Thupana (vice chairperson), Grant Reagon Son and Pfumelani Mbulayeni, meet on an ad hoc basis.
Its work includes the consideration of license and exemption applications, adjudicating on complaints and such licenses and exemptions, and attending to various enquiries.
The jurisdiction of the IASC includes international air services, which are also regulated through the interpretation of bilateral trade agreements in aviation by various countries with South Africa.
As custodians of a state asset, namely routes rights and frequencies, the Council's role includes ensuring that the assets are used competitively by licensees, in line with the Act or handed back to the state when licensees are no longer operating on the licensed routes and frequencies.
Ntanjana's further role is to issue Foreign Operator Permits (FoPs) to internationally registered airlines that wish to conduct international air service in South Africa.
The absence of the IASC, along with its domestic counterpart for almost a year, led to backlogs in dealing with applications by South Africa's airlines and prevented them from providing the economic and social benefits that air connectivity provides by facilitating trade, tourism, and travel.
Ntanjana said the Council has successfully whittled down the application backlog that had accumulated in the period there was no regulator but needs better finances and capability. The long gap without the Council, not having digitised systems, and Covid 19 were the main factors for the backlog.
Ntanjana said that the extent of compliance by licensees and permit holders has improved through licensing, enquiry processes and adjudications by the Council.
Ntanjana said the Act establishes the Council as a juristic body with its own decision-making systems and processes, budget, personnel and the ability to acquire expert skills that may be needed for full execution of its mandate.
The IASC still awaits a dedicated support service to assist in regulating and, where necessary, adjudication to the level of a semi-autonomous body, like any regulator.
‘’Lacking in any of the above pose a major impediment on the running of the institution as prescribed in the Act. An example is the high probability of missing one's objectives if such processes and decisions would depend on a different institution for major institutional steps, such as strategy, budgetary authorisations, to name a few,’’ she said.
Its functioning is under capacity due to manageable administrative, budgetary and legislative interpretation issues.
‘’I would say we are at plus 75 percent capacitated right now, and for a regulator, that is not good. That being the case, we try all we can to meet our mandated targets and industry expectations,’’ Ntanjana said.
At secretariat level, the Department of Transport (Dot) officials are trying the best they can to assist despite the challenges of being short-staffed and the like, she said.
“We are in need of added investigating capacity. We were stretched to investigate some allegations of non-compliance as the Council. We have asked and are looking forward to receiving financial assistance from the relevant sections of the department to be able to source such a service,’’ she said.
Ntanjana said the council needed to digitise its systems, such as applications and forms to be completed by licensees and applicants.
“We need a user-friendly knowledge management system so that the process can be easily auditable, transparent and trackable outcomes that are in line with prescribed time frames. However, we are almost past that as we, through DoT assistance, are in process of implementing the e-Service systems.”
“In regulating, we need to be conversant with the aviation sector. We actually need to be ahead of the industry in technological terms, understanding of applicable international aviation standards, industry and regulation evolution etc., so that we fully feature that through regulation,” she said.
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