The region’s aviation sector will soon be able to conduct efficient and impartial exams as well as significantly cut costs after the agency charged with inspection of aircrafts yesterday launched a new tool to that effect.

The new EAC aviation examination system, a harmonised scheme which is a data bank of aviation questions for pilots, aircraft engineers, flight engineers, among others, is seen as another major milestone for the bloc.

This online system - which will not go online immediately before requisite tests are concluded - is the first of its kind on the continent.

It was launched by board members of the Civil Aviation Safety and Security Oversight Agency (Cassoa) who are in Kigali ahead of the third East African Community (EAC) aviation Summit that begins today, Friday.

 The Director General of Rwanda Civil Aviation Authority (RCCA), Dr Richard Masozera, said "this is a very important day for the EAC” given that the new system will take the region’s industry a notch higher.

Barry Kashambo, the Cassoa Executive Director, said the new system yet to undergo a testing phase of up to three months before actual operationalisation, is particularly important for the bloc’s integration agenda.

Aviation exams will not only be harmonised but will also be secured, officials said. The new system, officials said, will also beef up the implementation of the common aviation licensing system, and support the EAC common market protocol.

"The project started about two to three years ago and today is a very special day with regard to EAC integration. The EAC  will be second only to the EU to have such a harmonised aviation examination system,” Kashambo said.

"Apart from helping facilitate a common exam setting system, it will also ease the exchange of aviation personnel. There will be an automatic eligibility for transfer to any partner state,” he added.

In addition, exam results will be released in time unlike before.

 The new tool is an examination software that will be used to examine pilots, air traffic managers and engineers across the five Civil Aviation Authorities (CAA) of the EAC.

Philip Wambugu, the EAC director for infrastructure, said: "People have been waiting for months to get results after sitting exams. The system will help us get licenses in a proper manner and eliminate all doubts.”

 The software will be centrally secured and managed at Cassoa headquarters in Entebbe, Uganda.

The software provided by LPULS Gmbh, a Germany software making company, cost the bloc $150,000 (Rwf100 million).

Even though estimates of the costs that will be cut by this software are not readily known, previously countries in the region would do things manually – do exam setting on paper while some would invite examiners from other countries to set and invigilate examinations, thus incurring training costs.

Established in 2007, the Cassoa is an autonomous self-accounting body of the EAC mandated to oversee the harmonisation of civil aviation safety and security standards and implement them across the bloc.

Its main objective is to ensure coordinated development of an effective and sustainable civil aviation safety and security oversight infrastructure across the EAC.