Singapore is base for Flight Safety Foundation’s new Asia Pacific Centre

Singapore will be the base of Flight Safety Foundations' new Asia Pacific Centre

The Flight Safety Foundation will set up their new Asia Pacific Centre for Aviation Safety in Singapore. The Foundations aims to use the centre to maintain the safety standards and capabilities of airline operations for stakeholders. This is especially pertinent at a time when air travel recovers to pre-pandemic levels.

Supported by the Civil Aviation Authority of Singapore (CAAS), the centre will develop an annual work programme to meet the needs of regulators and undertake projects to provide a deeper understanding of safety challenges. The programme further aims to build capabilities in technology, data analytics and safety management processes.

The establishment of the centre was announced by Mr. S Iswaran, Singapore’s Minister for Transport and Minister-in-Charge of Trade Relations at the inaugural Asia Pacific Summit for Aviation Safety organised by the Foundation and CAAS.

The centre will adopt a data-driven approach in its studies and projects to provide insight in advancing safety in the region. For a start, it will work on three key projects in 2023:

• Regional Safety Assessment: this project will pull together available safety data across regulators and industry to identify region-specific risk areas, review safety indicators and occurrence trends, and develop targeted safety solutions.
• Safety Culture Leadership: this project will study the essential elements of knowledge and capability needed to maintain effective safety leadership and organisational effectiveness in the Asia-Pacific region, considering cultural differences.
• Pilot Competency and Training Capabilities: this project will study best practices on pilot training methodologies to better screen, recruit and train pilots. This is to meet rising demand and support the growth of air travel.

The Foundation has appointed Mitchell A. Fox, a former airline pilot and long-time executive with the International Civil Aviation Organization, to serve as Centre Director. During his 30 years with ICAO, Fox served as the Chief of the TRAINAIR Programme, Chief of the Operational Safety Section and Chief of Strategic Planning and Regional Affairs Coordination within the Office of the Secretary General. He also served in the United Nations (UN) as the Director of Air Transport Service, managing more than 200 aircrafts that support UN peacekeeping missions worldwide. He will be based in Singapore.

Mr Han Kok Juan, Director-General of CAAS, said: “aviation safety must be a top priority of the Asia-Pacific region as air travel recovers to pre-pandemic levels. It requires close collaboration amongst regulators and industry across countries, given its cross-border nature. The setting up of the regional safety centre is timely and provides a common platform for such collaboration. Singapore is deeply honoured to host the centre (and) to do our part to contribute to thought leadership and aviation safety standards in the Asia-Pacific region.”

Dr. Hassan Shahidi, President and CEO of the Foundation, said: “as commercial aviation in the Asia Pacific region rebounds and recovers from the pandemic, it is important that all stakeholders have the resources and capabilities they need to ramp up operations safely. Working with aviation stakeholders in the region, the centre will aim to accelerate regional aviation safety enhancements and support the safe growth of the aviation sector in the region.”

More projects will be added to the annual work programme in consultation with regulators and industry in the region. CAAS will help fund the centre to support the initial set-up and its activities for the first five years. More information on the Asia Pacific Centre for Aviation Safety will be available soon on the Flight Safety Foundation website.