Mthiyane speaks at ATNS Avi Afrique Aviation Inovation Summit

“The theme of this year’s conference is “Innovation: The key to aviation sustainability in Africa”. I take this to mean that we will be focusing our discussion of innovation around the challenges and opportunities facing aviation on this continent.”

 

Mthiyane continued by describing where innovation sits within the world of aviation:

 

“Aviation is a highly technical field, whether one is talking about the engines that power the aircraft, the materials and techniques to build them, the comfort and safety of passengers inside the cabin and, of course, the management of an airspace. All of these disciplines rely on bright young minds with the right skills to take them forward.”

 

The importance of education was also bought up by Mthiyane, and how the aviation industry can help promote funding for further education:

 

“We need to come together as an industry to see how best we can help our colleagues in academia overcome these challenges - to ensure universities are adequately funded.”

 

“Private sector companies provide bursaries and other financial help to assist promising students to graduate, and I am sure that they will expand their role as they are able.”

 

Mthiyane concluded his speech by enforcing the need to promote innovation in the field of aviation.

 

“The better our aviation network is, the more use it is to the African economies it serves, and the more they will use us.”

 

“The truth is that wealthy nations build their prosperity not just on their natural resources, but on the skills of their people—thus on innovation rather than extraction.”

 

“Civil aviation, in particular, offers still a largely unrealised opportunity to create supporting industries across its entire value and supply chains.”