– Wosenyeleh Hunegnaw (Colonel)
BY GIRMACHEW GASHAW
Today’s guest Colonel Wosenyeleh Hunegnaw was a former Director of the Ethiopian Civil Aviation Authority. He had been serving the Ethiopian Air force in various capacities before he was appointed to the position. He was born and raised in bale Goba town of Oromia State. He attended primary and secondary education in Goro town. After completing high school education, he joined Holeta Military Academy to take training which made him physically capable of the defence force.
As a matter of luck, Colonel Wosenyeleh was one of the young Ethiopians selected to attend missile training abroad. Soon, he was selected to join the air force technical school and graduated in radar surveillance. Then after, he was assigned to the Assab front where he served his country as Head of the Radar Assembly section for many years. After that, He was assigned to Dire Dawa Airforce base. He again joined the air force training center to attend an advanced electronic management course.
While working at the Dire Dawa Air force base the Derg regime collapsed in 1991. Then, he heeded the call made by the government to rejoin the air force and offered various courses at the air force technical school.
When the Ethio-Eritrea war ignited, he was assigned to be part of the air force in Mekelle town. While he was there, he studied management and received his first degree from Mekelle University. He also attended commanded staff training which is given to high-level military officials. He was then assigned to lead an air force based in Mekele. He then transferred to the Air force headquarters in Debre Zeyit. He became a colonel while he was in the Ethiopian Air force where he served for 29 solid years.
He was then assigned as General Manager of the Ethiopian Civil Aviation Authority which he served for a dozen years. The Ethiopian Herald made a brief stay with him, raising issues related to the aviation sector, particularly civil aviation’s contribution to the overall development of the country. Have a nice read.
How do you explain aviation? What does aviation mean to you?
Aviation comes from the Latin avis meaning “bird,” an appropriate translation given that aviation deals with travel by air, specifically in a plane. The aviation industry is the business sector dedicated to manufacturing and operating all types of aircraft. Air traffic controllers, when they are awake, are concerned with aviation safety.
Civil aviation means any air transport operation, both commercial and non-commercial, as well as both scheduled and non-scheduled operations, but excluding operations carried out by state aircraft referred to in Article 3 of the 1944 Chicago Convention on International Civil Aviation. Civil aviation has the responsibility of monitoring operators. This institute has to be established as per the rule that is endorsed by the house of people representative.
Enabling operators to provide air transport service and keeping the necessary standard is the main responsibility of civil aviation. It assures the fitness of the operator be it in manpower or technologies. Travellers who know aviation ask whether civil aviation is well organized or not before they choose the better operator.
When we see it from the perspective of Ethiopia, civil aviation is administering the air space of Ethiopia which includes Air navigation. The arrangement of civil aviation differs from country to country. Some organize civil aviation independently while others are established in different forms as per aviation law and regulation. In the case of Ethiopia, civil aviation works with air navigation and other civil aviation works jointly. In short civil aviation means a legal entity that works to respect and be respected the national and international aviation rules and procedures.
What is the reason for the aviation sector to record a high level of development? How do you explain the overall development of the aviation sector?
From the perspective of civil aviation, to create a strong operator, there should be a strong supervisor like Ethiopian civil aviation. If there is a big airline and there are ineffective civil aviation, the world in general and travellers, in particular, do not trust the operator. The world of civil aviation does not trust the operator.
If Ethiopian Airlines becomes efficient in its capacity and plan to travel to the US, the American civil aviation organization first audits the standard of Ethiopia Civil Aviation but not Ethiopian Airlines. If the audit result falls under category one, they will allow the Ethiopian to fly within its territory. If civil aviation is below the required level, it might be blocked. The stronger system of civil aviation, the stronger operators. By and large, when there is strong civil aviation in a country, the operators would be better contribute to the economic activities.
To say that Ethiopian civil aviation is progressing, it is imperative to see the issue from two perspectives. When we see it from a private operator’s perspective, much remains to be done. On the other hand, the very reason for the progress of national careers is, that Ethiopian Civil Aviation and Ethiopian Airlines are working collaboratively.
Ethiopian Airlines is established under a strong foundation, going on to keep the momentum. In order not to make Ethiopian airlines below the standard, civil aviation has been doing whatever is possible. If we see Ethiopian Airlines alone, it is a pride to Africa as a whole. The leaders and the group that came continuously to the institution are very strong. It has shown continuous progress.
In this case, Ethiopian Airlines has reached a great level. Ethiopian civil aviation has also reached a wonderful stage. By and large, the aviation industry is at a record high. The task done so far is not equivalent to the expected as some airlines established recently bear fruits more than Ethiopians. If wealth is taken as a factor for development, rich countries could not build an airline stronger like Ethiopia. Thus, both the regulatory body and the operator have a greater impact on the effectiveness of the aviation sector. Ethiopian Airlines has its policy, a strong system that is regulated by the government. There are African countries that have better knowledge and expertise in many respects, but they do not have any airlines recognized internationally. For this to happen, the workers, the managers and other stakeholders have greater contributions.
How can the aviation sector contribute to the national economy?
Internationally, the aviation industry has greatly contributed to the overall economic progress. In the case of Ethiopia, the country does not have a port and in most cases, the people are traveling by air. Thus we can say it has a greater contribution to the progress of the national economy. If Ethiopia Airlines do not exist, other operators will come, but there must be stronger civil aviation than operators. The aviation sector supports the economy greatly. It facilitates everything.
Various airports have been built throughout the country. One of the mandates given to the Ethiopian Civil Aviation Authority is monitoring the construction of these airports. Some rumours have been raised about the quality and standards of the airport. Would you comment on that?
In my opinion, there is no shortage of airports in Ethiopia. Are we properly utilizing the existing ones? Building an airport requires a huge amount of capital. Therefore the existing airports are enough and good. This does not mean that there are no things that need further improvement. Some gaps should be addressed. These are included in the 10-year development plan.
However, the existing airports have been providing very minimal service for a small number of aeroplanes. This shows you that the numbers of private operators are very small to utilize the airports well. Are the entire airports in the country beneficiary? Are they returning the cost spent to build them? The costs of many airports are covered by the income gained from a few airports. This tells you that there is no shortage of airports. Airport should not be built in every nook and cranny. What is left in the airports is the absence of frequently flying aeroplanes.
How do you evaluate the contribution of private developers?
The private sector has not been involved highly in the aviation sector. There are some reasons for this. The aviation policy has not been yet endorsed. We tried our best when I was the general manager of Ethiopian civil aviation. It responds to the question: who is the operator? How does the plane land and who monitors it? There is no financial source that encourages private operators. The government has not been supporting the aviation sector as it does in other sectors.
There is less aviation investment in the country. When peace and stability return to their previous status, the aviation industry, especially private developers would be the backbone of the economy. In Kenya, there are 47 private operators but here in Ethiopia, only 13 operators are licensed. However, those who are operational are not exceeding six. Much remains to be done in this regard. Thus, the government should devise an aviation policy to support and encourage private developers.
Do you believe that the civil aviation of Ethiopia is developing as per its age?
The government should give due attention to civil aviation as the entity does not hire professionals simply from the market, it would rather need to offer additional training for the manpower recruited to fill the knowledge gap. After you do all these, the manpower that is expected to serve for some time is repeatedly raised with questions directly related to salary and other benefits. Even if effective tasks were done to uplift the aviation sector, we were not able to stop the turnover of human power. The leaders of civil aviation are now striving to change the obstacles as the bottleneck should be resolved. If we need the aviation sector to be stronger, it should give due attention to its manpower development.
The other thing is, the sector requires training. Indeed some of the training has been offered abroad even if efforts are exerted to provide the training with local capacity. All in all, to develop the aviation sector, it has to be given due attention. The sector requires highly skilled human power. Unless the staff of civil aviation received benefits equivalent to the airlines, they could not be vibrant workers that can change the institution.
While heading the Ethiopian Civil Aviation Agency for the past 12 years you are believed to have managed to build the reputation of the company. What were your major achievements by then?
Like anybody else assigned to a certain position, I have my weaknesses and strengths. Together with the staff of civil aviation, we discharged the responsibility given to us by international aviation. For this, Ethiopian civil aviation received an internationally recognized award scoring high audit results and was selected as one of the five top civil aviation institutions out of 192 countries.
Now Ethiopia has become a member of the international civil aviation council. It is one of the 36 member countries. We were fighting to get such a rank as the 13 east African states are always fighting to get it. Hence, Ethiopia has now devised an international civil aviation policy together with members of the council.
On one hand, the war that took place between the government forces and TPLF is a curse for the aviation sector as it targeted some of the airports. Now a peace accord is signed between the two sides, what is your take on that?
Peace and stability are fundamental things for the aviation industry. If there is no peace, a private operator cannot land their helicopter in the jungle. If there is lasting peace and stability, the number of investors who buy helicopters and planes will increase dramatically. When there is an agricultural and industrial investment within the country, investors need to use their time effectively and efficiently. If you take for instance Mekelle Airport, Ethiopian airlines were flying seven times a day. The same is true at Axum and Kombolcha Airports. Peace and stability are a priority not only for aviation sector development but also for overall economic advancement.
In my point of view, the peace accord is vital as no one hates peace in general. The government should think about the sustainability of the peace process. The peace deal should not make some groups more content but frustrated others. A win-win point of decision that everyone trusts have to be created. War is a cause of the destruction and economic failure. All should win and leave in harmony.
Thank you for your time.
Thank you for the invitation.
The Ethiopian Herald November 12/2022
