South African Transport Minister Barbara Creecy has lauded the safety record of the South African commercial aviation sector, while noting the need to improve safety in the general aviation (GA) sector. She was delivering the closing address at the National Aviation Conference 2026.

“South Africa continues to maintain an exceptional safety record in commercial aviation, with zero fatal accidents recorded over more than four decades of scheduled airline operations,” she highlighted. “This is a significant achievement, one that reflects strong oversight, disciplined operations, and a deeply embedded safety culture across the sector.”

She also stressed the outcome of the recent International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) Coordinated Validation Mission (ICVM) to South Africa. (ICAO performs an ICVM to check if a country has satisfactorily resolved previously identified safety deficiencies.) The preliminary results have given South Africa a score of 95.12%, which ranks the country seventh in the world in terms of aviation safety oversight.

“This makes us proud, and encourages us to ever improve our professionalism, performance of strategic objectives and sound governance,” she affirmed. “The responsibility now is to sustain and continuously strengthen this performance. We must ensure that our regulatory framework remains responsive, that compliance is consistently enforced, and that the integrity of the aviation system is protected over time.”

There was, however, a need to strengthen safety in the country’s GA sector. The 2025/26 financial year (FY) had seen 76 GA accidents. Nevertheless, this was a substantial improvement over the 133 accidents in FY 2024/25 and 114 accidents in FY 2023/24.

Creecy commended the efforts of both the sector and the South African Civil Aviation Authority (SACAA), through their GA Safety Strategy campaign, to improve GA safety in the country. And she supported the SACAA’s initiative to develop a Safety Hub that will be hosted on its website and have tools to make communication and consultation between industry and regulator easier.

She also addressed the issue of security.

“Recent aviation security incidents at OR Tambo International Airport (ORTIA) and other points of entry have highlighted the evolving risks facing aviation security,” she pointed out. “These incidents point to increasingly sophisticated criminal networks seeking to exploit international air routes. We need more effective screening processes, closer coordination and a system-wide approach to safeguarding the integrity of our aviation environment. Aviation safety and security are interdependent, and both are essential to maintain public confidence in the system.”

She noted that the Airports Company South Africa (ACSA) planned to invest R21.7-billion over the next five years to upgrade the country’s main international airports. She was also encouraged by the progress at Air Traffic and Navigation Services, which has resulted in an increase in air traffic movements, of 8.12% at Durban’s King Shaka International Airport and 4.78% at ORTIA.

The Department of Transport had set targets of achieving 30-million passenger journeys, and 1.2-million tons of air freight, through ACSA airports by 2030. This was part of a wider effort to make transport a crucial enabler of the country’s economic recovery and long-term growth, she observed.