Civil Aviation Administration Annual Report 1998
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Civil Aviation Administration ANNUAL␣REPORT 1998 1 Review by the Director General It is the primary aim of the Civil vanced members. Among other ties of the CAA, which was about Aviation Administration to main- things, our overhauled safety man- 5 % of all reports and clearly few- tain proper air safety. Systematic, agement system ensures that all er than in the previous year. Com- responsible operations, in which changes that we adopt are careful- mercial aviation was involved in anomalies are reported, form the ly tested for safety and that even 16 of the cases reported to the starting point in all aviation pro- minor aviation anomalies are re- CAA. The cases reported related to fessions and duties, and the over- ported, investigated and corrected anomalous practices; two of them riding proviso for developments and that the entire organization were classified as mildly hazard- undertaken at airports and in air learns from them. ous incidents. On average, one or navigation services is safety. In two air navigation incidents clas- 1998 we restructured our safety Safe expansion in 1998 sified as hazardous incidents en- management system according to The year 1998 was a good one in tailing certain risks have occurred the general principles set out by Finland for aviation safety. More each year, which corresponds to the Eurocontrol organization. Sim- or less the same number of anom- the figures for the more advanced ilar developments are taking place alous air traffic situations were re- aviation countries. in all the countries belonging to ported to the air safety authorities Demand trends in Finnish air that organi- zation. Although Fin- as previously — about 500, of traffic during the review year were land will not officially join the or- which three were classified as very similar to those of the year ganization until 2000 we are al- hazardous incidents entailing before. The five percent growth in ready adopting Eurocontrol risks. These incidents were not re- Gross Domestic Product produced standards and operating principles lated to CAA activities. 29 of these a ten per cent increase in air traf- in the same way as its more ad- 500 reports referred to the activi- fic. As in the previous year, the 2 22 fastest growth occurred in domes- transport can be regarded as actu- tic traffic, which continued to ally slower than in the rest of Eu- grow by a robust 13 %. This more rope. This continues to suggest generally illustrates domestic de- that in Finland, a land of long dis- mand at the moment, too. De- tances, separated by the sea and mand for overseas flights in- highly suited to air transport, avia- creased for the fifth successive tion has an excellent chance of year, by 9 %, reaching seven mil- developing as an industry in the lion flights or almost 1.4 flights for future, too. every inhabitant, which is one of the highest productivity figures in The financial result the whole of Europe. Of course, improves there are good geographical rea- Expanded commercial operations sons for this. A structural change in conjunction with the beneficial occurred in overseas traffic, away trend in air traffic raised the turn- from charter flights to scheduled over of the CAA by 11 %. The traffic. CAA’s financial profit improved, Air traffic in the whole of Eu- we were able to reduce airport rope increased by 8 %, or slightly charges and many discretionary more slowly than in Finland. renovations and improvements in However, in relation to economic service, which themselves will growth, the trend in Finnish air herald economies in future years, 3 were carried out. As a result of the ing from the growth in demand ce of origin of the flight should not operational improvements, the and improvements in operations result in differences in landing standard of service at Helsinki- be distributed as reduced charges charges at Finnish airports. The Vantaa airport was rated in user to airlines operating within and CAA takes the view that airport surveys as one of the best in Eu- from Finland. For geographical fees too, may be levied according rope for the second year running. reasons, a large proportion of to commercial principles — in ac- The financial result for the CAA Finnish routes can be regarded as cordance with national laws — es- after deductions and incidental being a basic service which cre- pecially since such fees in Finland items came out FIM 96 million in ates the prerequisites for regional for international traffic too are profit. This can be considered production and service activities among the lowest in Europe. The good for this industry. The result and reinforces them. The CAA CAA will appeal against the Com- exceeded by FIM 50 million the works, therefore, to make sure that mission’s decision. long term goal of a four percent the airport network and air naviga- return on invested capital, as set tion services support good, low- ...and no delays by the Ministry of Transport for cost air travel. Punctuality of air traffic is the most self-financing national institutions important gauge of airport and air managing infrastructural opera- Low fees are the goal... navigation service standards. tions. In fact a certain acceleration Thanks to the positive trend in de- Weather permitting, the CAA stri- is evident in the 1998 figures mand, the CAA was able to reduce ves to achieve delays to no more ahead of 1999, when the abolition the charges for its services — air- than 2 % of flights using Helsinki- of tax-free trading for transport port and route operation fees — by Vantaa airport as a result of its own within the EU will cause a clear an average of 2 %. We made a activities, whilst no more than 1 % dent in airport earnings. In fact, cost-based structural change in of flights should be delayed by under the CAA’s operating policy it pricing in such a way that charges more than 15 minutes. The corre- is not necessary in a country like for domestic traffic were raised by sponding goal for other airports in Finland to strive for more than a about 3 % and those for overseas Finland is less than 0.5 %. We did moderate return on capital for traffic reduced by about 4 %. not achieve this target in 1998; in- maintaining basic social infra- However, airport fees for domestic stead the proportion of delayed structure. It is right that in a situa- flights are still cheaper than for flights increased considerably. tion of stiff international competi- overseas flights. A decision by the Even so, Helsinki-Vantaa was one tion the productivity gains result- EU Commission ruled that the pla- of the most punctual airports in 4 44 Europe for its size. much about these delays, but pan- occurred at the beginning of the Almost 10 % of flights from our European cooperation on air navi- year. A significant proportion of main airport were delayed for air gation is striving to increase air the financial impetus from 1998 traffic control reasons. More than traffic control capacity and reduce dwindles from the effects of the half of these were the result of air- delays. It’s a challenging task as strike and the subsequent pay rise, space usage regulations beyond traffic burgeons. which exceeded the prevailing Finland’s borders, the rest resulted norm. However, the resulting four from the CAA itself. Half of the Overcast for 1999 year agreement does open up op- CAA’s delays — to 2.5 % of flights Increased demand, liberal avia- portunities for improving air navi- — resulted from regulatory action tion policies and improved financ- gation productivity in a construc- by area flight control and half from es for the airlines, along with tive spirit. regulatory action by Helsinki-Van- greater competition, have meant Even the most difficult strike is taa airport when its capacity was that the number of operations in only a passing cloud, and sustain- exceeded momentarily. Not much commercial traffic increased fast- able development in air traffic, as can be done about the 2.5 % of er than the numberg of passengers in other consequential demand, delays caused by the airport until for the second year running — by depends on the general trend in the third runway at Helsinki-Van- as much as 13 %. This kind of ex- the national economy. The natural taa comes into operation in 2002. pansion requires the rapid addi- growth in air traffic at the begin- Rather, they are likely to increase tion of runway capacity at Helsin- ning of the year was running at with the growth in traffic. Howev- ki-Vantaa. The present capacity of about 5 %, of which the trouble er, it is possible to dramatically the cross-runway system — 43 op- early in the year nipped off two reduce the need for regulatory ac- erations an hour — is already re- percentage points. Even this rate of tion by Finnish area air traffic con- stricting rush-hour traffic and also growth should be sufficient to trol by better timetable planning causes delays in bad weather. keep the CAA’s finances for 1999 and reorganizing the airspace. The When the new runway is complet- relatively stable, though they will proportion of delays caused by ed in 2002 it will raise the airport’s be clearly weaker than in 1998. regulatory actions at European capacity to 75 operations an hour. level is increasing all the time and The outlook for air transport is almost at three times the rate and the airports for 1999 is over- experienced in Finland. One shadowed by the five-week air Mikko Talvitie country alone cannot do very traffic controllers’ strike, which Director General 5 The Civil Aviation Administration in brief The Civil Aviation Administration pro- vides it customers — the air traffic oper- ators and passengers — with airport and air navigation services which are safe, of an internationally high standard and competitive, and develops businesses in support of these services.