South African State-owned company Air Traffic and Navigation Services (ATNS) and the Swaziland Civil Aviation Authority (SWACAA) have signed a commercial agreement that will see ATNS supply a billing service to SWACAA for all over-flights that included commercial, noncommercial, scheduled and nonscheduled flights.

Revenue generated from the collection of fees for over-flights would accrue to Swaziland.

The agreement followed the signing of a memorandum of understanding between the two parties in May last year, which included a provision that ATNS would monitor aircraft that used Swaziland airspace using specialist equipment that was able to observe aircraft as far as Mozambique and the Indian Ocean.

SWACAA director-general Solomon Dube said ATNS had a reputation of deploying the most efficient and effective aeronautical billing and collection system in the Southern African Development Community (SADC) region.

“The agreement aims to strengthen the aviation system in the region and improve safety,” added ATNS Commercial Services executive Dumisani Sangweni.

Moreover, in line with their membership to the VSAT Network, which had eliminated the communication deficiencies in the SADC region and was fulfilling the region’s communications requirements in terms of the International Civil Aviation Organisation Africa/Indian Ocean plan, ATNS and SWACAA had several joint initiatives lined up in the near future.

These include specifically tailored training programmes for the Centralised Aeronautical Database system, which was part of the regional introduction of the new ATNS product and was a single repository for all aeronautical information.

This system would enable African States to link up to the database and make use of its benefits, which would be in the static information domain.

It would allow for a free-flowing, transparent and open use of aeronautical information.