By Skies Magazine | October 7, 2022 Estimated reading time 4 minutes, 29 seconds.
Transport Canada announced Oct. 4 that it is launching an air taxi aviation safety campaign to address the Transportation Safety Board of Canada’s (TSB) Recommendation A19-02, which recommends that the Department of Transport should help air taxi operators and their clients eliminate the acceptance of unsafe practices. According to the TSB, there are roughly 500 companies providing air taxi services across Canada.
The Board’s recommendation was issued in November 2019, after it launched a Safety Issues Investigation in May 2015 to look into “the risks that persist in air taxi operations across Canada.”
After reviewing 15 years of data, the TSB’s investigation was able to identify numerous unsafe practices in the sector that “have been happening for years and continue to happen — from flying overweight to flying in marginal weather, to flying with inadequate fuel reserves.”
Transport Canada noted that air taxi services “operate in a very different context than other sectors of aviation.” These operations do not have a set schedule, and tend to fly frequently into remote areas in uncontrolled airspace, with few airports or navigation aids, the aviation authority noted.
Given these facts, it comes as no surprise that in a recent report, the TSB identified more accidents and fatalities in the air taxi sector than in all other sectors of commercial aviation in Canada.
Following a summer of nice weather, and the elimination of virtually all pandemic-related restrictions, Transport Canada is anticipating that air traffic volume in the air taxi sector will continue to grow, “alongside people’s desire to get mobile in ways they weren’t able to” over the last two-and-a-half years.
This, and the TSB’s November 2019 recommendation, prompted Transport Canada to launch a three-year air taxi safety campaign, which is to be completed in five phases: focus group development and facilitation; facilitation of subsequent working groups; statistics-gathering to support campaign objectives and effectiveness; facilitation of seminars and participation in association events; and developing safety promotion and education publications, as well as tools that support the elimination of unsafe practices in the air taxi sector.
Transport Canada acknowledged that the success of its campaign is dependent on “voluntary compliance” from the sector. The aviation authority said air taxi operators can expect to see more inspectors reaching out to gain insight and input in the fall.
“Over the last couple of years, we’ve really been able to take a step back to strategize and inform ourselves on how to dial this campaign into what it needs to be to take us forward,” said Nicholas Robinson, director general, Transport Canada. “We look forward to working together, as your expertise, commitment and action are the most critical parts of this campaign.”
Transport Canada is encouraging industry to provide input, feedback, and expertise by contacting airtaxi-taxiaerien@tc.gc.ca.
