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The Second SA Civil Aviation Authority Industry Awards


The Civil Aviation authority of South Africa hosted the second instalment of the Civil Aviation Industry Awards at the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) International Convention Centre in Pretoria on Friday the 13th December.

The glitzy event was slightly delayed due to massive volumes of traffic on the all the motorways around Gauteng, unfortunately the date coincided with the beginning of the festive season holidays together with normal long weekend traffic. The delay gave all the guests that were there time to catch up while being entertained by a solo saxophonist.

Once everyone had arrived and made their way to the function hall the event got underway with a performance by the Johannesburg Opera Tenors, offering brilliant renditions of music made famous by the likes of Luciano Pavarotti, Plácido Domingo and José Carreras.

The ever popular Leanne Manas was the Captain for the evening flanked by her two co-pilots Jonathan Boyton-Lee and Maps Mopanyane. Ms Poppy Khoza, the Director of Civil Aviation, was invited to the stage to welcome all the guest and offer some insight into the vision behind the Civil Aviation Industry Awards.

Leanne Manas, Jonathan Boyton-Lee and Maps Mopanyane

In her address Ms Khoza eluded to the “Mixed Bag” which 2019 had delivered the aviation industry, with many positives and unfortunately many negatives as well. The Celebration of the 75th anniversary of the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) and the 50th anniversary of the African Civil Aviation Commission (AFCAC). Ms Khoza briefly touched on the worrying trend of  accidents in specifically the General Aviation Sector and pleaded that care be taken to curb this in the future. Ms Khoza concluded her address by thanking all the entrants and congratulated all the nominees for the wonderful contribution they made to the industry in 2019.

Ms Poppy Khoza

Mr Earnest Khosa, a SACAA Board Member then introduced the Deputy Minister of Transport, Ms Dikeledi Magadzi  and invited her to the stage to deliver her Keynote Address.

Mr Earnest Khosa

The Deputy Minister wished everyone a belated happy Civil Aviation Day, which was celebrated on the 7th December, just a week earlier with the theme “75 Years of connecting the World”. Ms Magadzi emphasized some statistics pertaining to the global aviation industry, the importance of the aviation industry in Africa and South Africa.

“Every day, more than 100,000 flights transport almost 12 million passengers worldwide” she explained “Air transport supports 6.2 million jobs and USD 55.8 billion in Gross Domestic Product in Africa, and the World Economic Forum recently stated that by 2035, Africa will transport an extra 192 million passengers a year for a total market of 303 million passengers travelling to and from African destinations. Similarly, our own country, South Africa, has a vibrantly busy civil aviation industry, providing jobs to 70,000 people for both skilled and unskilled labour in South Africa. The airline subsector pays nearly R6.0 billion in tax”

Ms Magadzi emphasised that that aviation safety and security remains the departments greatest concern and will not hesitate to do what it takes to keep South African skies safe. The Deputy Minister concluded by congratulating every runner-up and winner of an award.

Deputy Minister of Transport, Ms Dikeledi Magadzi

Former Director of Civil Aviation and former CEO at the South African Civil Aviation Authority, Captain Colin Jordaan, headed the diverse adjudication panel, took to the stage to offer some insight on just how the nominees were adjudged to be worthy recipients of these highly coveted awards. He was followed by Ms Puleng Mapete who represented Nugubane and Company, the auditing firm contracted to verify the fairness of the process.  

Captain Colin Jordaan                             Ms Puleng Mapete

Starters  were then enjoyed to a brilliant performance by the Ballet Theatre, and once everyone settled down it was time to get to business of the evening, the awards.

The first Award was for Aviation Safety, with no less than thirteen nominees, ACSA Cape Town International airport were adjudged the winners followed by ACSA King Shaka International Airport and Airbus Helicopters Southern Africa as first and Second Runner up respectively.

Air Traffic and Navigation Services  were acclaimed for their outstanding contribution to Aviation Transformation, Jet-Nav were awarded 1st runner and Newcastle Airshow received the 2nd Runner Up position.

The Aviation innovation award was won by Satellite Authorisation Systems for the amazing work done in innovative communications infrastructure on SAA’s live aircraft, facilitating the in-flight tracking solution in real-time. Sentian Aerospace and ACSA OR Tambo International were placed 1st and 2nd Runner up respectively.

ACSA OR Tambo International airport took top honours in the Aviation Sustainability and Environment Category, ACSA King Shaka came in as 1st Runner up and 43 Air School managed the 2nd Runner up position.

In the Top Aviation Professional Category, FlySafair CEO Elmar Canradie and Gaborekwe Khambule from the SA Weather Service were jointly honoured.

Elmar has been with the company since 2005, initially as chief financial officer, before taking over the reins as CEO in 2015. While Gaborekwe is the National head of aeronautical weather forecasting in SAWS and non-executive director with South African National Space Agency.

Basil Simons from jet Nav was 1st Runner.

Air Traffic and Navigation Services were awarded the prestigious title of best performing in the field of People Development. The ATNS Aviation Training Academy (ATA) is a unique organisation in terms of the training on offer. Not only do they provide Air Traffic Services and Engineering Training to their staff members, but also provide a wide range of aviation-related and safety-related courses throughout the Continent and into the Middle East. The 1st Runner Up position went to FlySafair followed by ExecuJet Aviation Group.

The Aircraft Operator of the year award was a tightly contested affair with only four nominees, FlySafair, the most on time airline in the world however rose to the top, followed by ExecuJet Aviation Group and Comair Ltd.

The FlySafair team barely had time to leave the stage before they were called back to receive the award for the best Aviation Maintenance Organisation. 43 Air School were place in  the 1st Runner Up position and Airbus Helicopter were recognised as 2nd Runner Up.

FlySafair once again made their way to the stage as they were Aviation Customer Services champions, a fact that most of their customers will attest too FlySafair have taken airline customer service and especially communication to a new level in South Africa. 43 Air School were awarded 1st Runner Up position and ExecuJet walked away with 2nd Runner Up.

The Award for Best Aviation Training Facility went to AirTraffic and Navigation Services, edging out 43 Air School and SA Airlink. In this category there was an impressive fifteen nominees.  

A trend was starting to form with FlySafair taking yet another award in the Aviation Security Category, SA Airlink were in 1st Runnuer Up position, as there were only two nominees no 2nd Runner Up was awarded.

An award for Aviation Research and Development was awarded to Riaan Stopforth, from the University of Kwazulu Natal, for his ground-breaking work in the development of an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) intended for search and rescue applications. The South African Weather Services were adjudged to be 1st Runner Up and Jireh Aviation Research received the 2nd Runner Up position.