Recent adjustments to civil aviation laws are meant to improve safety standards near Egyptian airports, and provide vital support for the sector's ambitious development plans. Amira Ibrahim reports One of the main reasons why Cairo's Imbaba Airport -- which had primarily been used for aviation training -- was recently shut down had to do with all the buildings that had sprung up in its very near vicinity. The new buildings were making it extremely difficult for planes to safely navigate their way to and from the airport, and several crashes occurred. Recently approved by parliament, a new amendment to the country's Aviation Law is meant to ensure that this does not happen any more. The urban creep at Imbaba had been going on for the past two decades. Airports in Alexandria and Luxor had experienced similar problems, with building violations resulting in the two airports losing at least two important air navigation passages, thus disqualifying certain heavy aircraft from using them altogether. One of the main impetuses behind the new amendment was the constant vertical and horizontal expansion of Cairo's Heliopolis and Nasr City suburbs. Had construction in these areas been left to currently existing regulations, Egypt's main international airport may have soon felt the same squeeze that Imbaba, Luxor and Alexandria had felt before it. Although 1976's Civil Aviation Law was modified in 1981 to include regulations governing construction near airports, the rules were still not stringent enough, it seems. According to Aviation Ministry Undersecretary Hassan Abu Ghnima, "We made it clear that we must be authorised to deal directly with construction violations, especially considering the fact that we will soon be starting construction on a new $350 million terminal. It would be nonsensical to spend such a large amount of money and not be able to ensure that the same thing that happened to Imbaba doesn't happen to the new airport." In fact, the new amendment to the law gives the concerned civil aviation bodies the authority to immediately demolish -- at the expense of the owner -- buildings that violate zoning laws. The law also stipulates that the owner, the contractor, and the architect of the violating building receive penalties including a minimum of one year in prison or no less than a LE10,000 fine. The new law also gives aviation authorities the jurisdiction to issue licenses for either new buildings, or the addition of floors to old buildings, within the vicinity of airports. Construction license fees for either of these jobs have also gone up from LE150 to LE5000 each. Although the amendments were passed into law, some legislators criticised them as unconstitutional. "When it comes to providing authorisation for aviation authorities to demolish buildings," said Muslim Brotherhood MP Mohamed Mursi, "this amendment contradicts other laws. Also, it does not deal with already existing buildings that are in violation of the law, and which actually represent a threat to air navigation near Cairo Airport." Another important amendment to the Civil Aviation Law has to do with drastically modifying fees for aviation services in order to bring them in line with global aviation pricing policies, a move that is also meant to help provide additional financial resources to fund new projects. "We aim to create an efficient pricing mechanism that meets economic operational standards of air navigation and airports," Aviation Minister Ahmed Shafiq told Al-Ahram Weekly. Two weeks ago, Shafiq inaugurated a number of improvement projects at Cairo Airport worth some LE86 million. More projects are due to be completed by next October. "Aviation resources at present hardly cover maintenance and operation expenses and thus do not provide required investments for the projects we have planned," the minister said. According to Shafiq, a higher council will be formed to draw up a new pricing system for services -- including the renting of buildings and land owned by the airports holding company, as well as the transit, landing and take off fees airlines pay to use Cairo International Airport. The new amendment also stipulates a fee increase for renewing or issuing operational licenses for private airports and airlines. Observers said the new amendments helped provide a catalyst to the inking of a recent $400 million loan from the World Bank to construct Cairo Airport's new terminal. Egypt had spent the last 12 years attempting to get the required funding for this and other important projects. There has been, however, some criticism concerning the application of this second amendment as well. Analysts said the contract signed last week between aviation authorities and the Egyptian harvest exporters' association for the rental of a large parcel of land near Cairo Airport -- on which a hi-tech agriculture storehouse is being constructed to preserve agricultural products awaiting export -- did not truly reflect the new civil aviation philosophy mandated by the amendment. The harvesters' association got the land cheap -- at a rate of just LE240,000 a year for a total of 24,000 square metres -- or LE10 per meter per year. EgyptAir will get LE1.5 million a year for managing the project. According to Captain El-Mu'tassim Billah Ahmed, head of EgyptAir for Air Freight Company, "It's a small amount, but profit isn't everything." Ahmed was referring to the 104 new job opportunities that would also be created by the project. Critics, however, pointed out that in its current state, the partnership does not include any profit sharing arrangement or even a basic time period for the project's duration, which they say goes against the recently announced aviation policies that stipulate the transformation of all of the industry's sectors into profit making entities. "National harvest exports used to forfeit about 30 per cent of their value due to air transport delays," said Cairo International Airport head Hassan Mohamed Hassan, responding to the criticism. "We have a national target which is to encourage exporting. Perhaps later on we can have another look into the deal."
