Keywords: ASEKNA, air navigation services, flight safety

In 2013, African airlines accounted for 20% of the world's fatal air crashes, although only about 3% of the world's passenger traffic is carried out over the continent. The main causes of accidents in the region are the use of old, heavily worn-out aircraft by airlines and the poor quality of pilot training. At the same time, over the past decade, there has not been a single air incident over the African continent involving dangerous approach of aircraft or their collision in airspace. What is being done to improve the level of flight safety in the airspace of Africa, and who exactly - what international structure-ensures the safety of air navigation?

There is such a structure : the Agency for the Safety of Air Navigation in Africa and Madagascar (ASECNA) is responsible for ensuring the safety of air navigation on the African continent and Madagascar. It was established in 1960 and has the status of an international intergovernmental organization [1]. The Agency will celebrate its 55th anniversary next year. During its existence

The Agency has made significant progress in addressing the challenge of improving flight safety on airliners operated by African airlines.

Now it includes 17 African States-Benin, Congo, Chad, Madagascar, Burkina Faso, Ivory Coast, Mali, Togo, Cameroon, Gabon, Mauritania, Central African Republic, Guinea-Bissau, Niger, Comoros, Equatorial Guinea, Senegal, as well as one European State - France. ASECNA is headquartered in Dakar. Membership in the organization is also open to other African countries, subject to the consent of all ACECNA members.

Africa has long remained and still remains the least favorable region in the world in terms of aviation safety, and a number of African companies have a low reputation in the world. Air carriers from 14 African countries are not allowed to fly in the EU, and air carriers from 3 countries are prohibited from flying to the United States due to their inability to comply with the required level of security during transportation.

Annex 19 to the Chicago Convention of 1944 [2], adopted by the ICAO Council and entered into force relatively recently - on November 14, 2013.Since ASECNA plays a leading role on the African continent, from the point of view of flight safety, the effectiveness of the application and implementation of the provisions of the Annex depends entirely on the Agency. This raises the following questions: will it be able to cope with this task, and how effective are the methods of air navigation services in the region used by ASECNA?

The creation of the Agency was due to a significant increase in the number of air services in the late 1950s, both worldwide and on the African continent. It is no coincidence that in the same year, similar international intergovernmental organizations were formed in Europe - the European Organization for the Safety of Air Navigation (Eurocontrol) and in Latin America - the Central American Organization for Air Navigation Services (COQUESNA). When analyzing the activities of intergovernmental organizations, they are usually divided into a separate group - international air navigation organizations.

The creation of such organizations also had political prerequisites. The early 1960s were a period of widespread decolonization of the African continent. Most of the member States of ACECNA were at that time colonies of France. In order to maintain its political and economic weight in Africa, France needed to create an international organization in which it could become a full member on an equal basis with the former colonies and have certain levers of pressure on all the 17 States listed above. In addition, in the format of an intergovernmental organization, it was more convenient for this country to provide financial support to its former colonies.

The number and volume of air traffic on the African continent increased significantly during that period, with French air traffic accounting for the largest share. That is why the French leadership decided to establish some control over the airspace of Africa. She actively participated in the preparation of a number of international conferences where documents of the future intergovernmental organization were discussed, as well as in the development of its fundamental document - the ASECNA Convention on Education. The importance of such a document is also due to the fact that the size of the airspace in which the Agency provides air navigation services is one and a half times larger than the airspace over the territory of Europe.

When creating ASECNA, its founders set out to prevent the "fragmentation" of air traffic control over the African continent and to achieve its organizational integrity. It was important not only to ensure the safety of navigation, but also to combine financial, material and human resources in order to use them most effectively [3]. Based on this, the management structure of ASECNA was developed and implemented, which includes the following bodies: the Committee of Ministers of Guardianship, the Board of Directors, the Director General, the Accounting Specialist, the Financial Controller, the Audit Committee, and the Security Audit Committee.

The Committee of Ministers of Guardianship meets in special sessions at least once a year, and its Chairman is also elected annually. The main function of the Committee is to determine the economic and technical policy of ASECNA. The Board of Directors meets more frequently - at least twice a year. Among its tasks is the adoption of the annual budget and the development of measures to ensure the normal functioning of the Agency.

Direct day-to-day management of ASEKNA is carried out by the General Director [1, p.424]. It is responsible for the selection of employees (with the exception of accountants and financial supervisors), monitoring the implementation of current and future tasks of the Agency, as well as monitoring the activities of two Vice-general directors. It is also fully responsible for appointing an ASECNA Special Representative in each Member State of the Agency.

The CEO is responsible to the Board of Directors for the results of his / her work in managing the Agency. It also appoints three financial auditors and four security audit experts. These experts are united in a special Co-

Safety Audit Committee, which provides assistance to ensure the safety of air traffic, in accordance with the standards and recommended practices of the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) [4].

The main functions of ASECNA are defined in article 2 of the Convention on the Agency for the Safety of Air Navigation in Africa and Madagascar, signed on October 25, 1974, better known as the 1974 Dakar Convention. According to this article, ASECNA is responsible for the development, implementation and management of facilities and services related to the transmission of technical messages, air traffic control, exchange of aeronautical information, forecasting and reporting in the field of meteorology, publication of aeronautical maps, as well as maps of approaches to landings at airfields of the member States of ASECNA. The Organization ensures the regularity and safety of aircraft flights over the territory of these States and in international airspace in areas defined by ICAO [1, p. 423].

The territory of the airspace controlled by ASEKNA is huge - 16.1 million square kilometers. It is divided into 6 flight information areas: Antananarivo, Brazzaville, Dakar Oceanic, Dakar Land, Niamey, N'Djamena. In the territory under the jurisdiction of the Agency in the field of air navigation services, there are:: 10 regional control centers, 57 airfield control points, 25 international airports, 76 national and regional airports [5].

Over this entire area, ASECNA is responsible for air traffic control, developing communication methods and implementing them, collecting flight data, forecasting and transmitting meteorological information.

The Agency cooperates with 27 major airports located in 17 African countries. At these airports, its employees perform maintenance of all facilities - hangars, fire stations, air refueling complexes, passenger terminals, etc., with the exception of runways. Since the beginning of 2009, ACECNA has been operating airports in 8 member States-Benin, Burkina Faso, Central African Republic, Gabon, Equatorial Guinea, Mali, Niger and Chad - "directly" on the basis of separate agreements [5].

In accordance with Article 11 of the 1974 Dakar Convention, ACECNA is also authorized to cooperate with those non - member countries that have expressed their willingness to conclude relevant service contracts. Currently, the Agency cooperates with a number of non - member States, including some East African countries, as well as Morocco, Seychelles, Mauritius, Reunion and some Caribbean States.

In 2011, the Agency's management adopted an important document - the Strategic Development Plan for ASEKNA. In particular, it lists several main policy directions of ASECNA for the coming years. These include reorientation of economic resources, rationalization of air traffic management, use of innovative technologies, modernization of human resource management, implementation of investment projects in a timely manner, provision of financial resources and strengthening of relations between the participating States.

The changes also affected the organizational structure of ASEKN. Of the 6 main divisions, only 2 remained: the technical operation department of facilities and air traffic control. Other structures of the Agency have been preserved, but they have acquired a kind of" subordinate " character: in accordance with the Strategic Plan, they should serve as a support for the implementation of the primary task - safe navigation in airspace on the African continent. Finally, the task was set to strengthen control over the quality of services provided to airline passengers. These services must fully comply with international aviation regulations.

From all of the above, we can draw an important conclusion: thanks to the activities of ASECNA, especially in the first decade of the new century, flights over Africa now almost fully meet international standards and therefore have a completely modern, i.e. rather high level of safety. There is no doubt that the alarming data presented at the very beginning of this article about the "unreliability" of the African sky and the relatively high accident rate of flights operated by local airlines will soon come into line with similar international indicators.

1. For more information, see: Blishenko I. P., Abashidze A. H. Pravo mezhdunarodnykh organizatsii [Law of International Organizations], Moscow, RUDN University, 2013. A.Kh Pravo mehdu-narodniykh organizatsiy. Moscow, 2013) (in Russian)

2. Annex 19, Safety Management, to the 1944 Chicago Convention - http://www.avia docs.net/icaodocs/ Annexes/an 19 cons _ru. pdf (06.02.2014).

3. Aviation in Africa: Asecna, Cassoa. Memphis, General Books. 2010.

4. International aviation regulations are understood as annexes to the Convention on International Civil Aviation. Doc. ICAO 7300/9.

5. For more information, see: Travnikov A. I. Mezhdunarodnoe aeronaviga-tsionnoe pravo. Moscow, 2013 (in Russian)

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