Aviation International News senior correspondent Ian Goold has been involved in aerospace since 1964 and in aviation media for more than 40 years. He enjoyed a 20-year career at Flight International magazine, where he was latterly air-transport editor before turning freelance in 1993. A winner of the European Regions Airline Association Hank McGonagle award for excellence in aerospace journalism and a Royal Aeronautical Society Aerospace Journalist of the Year global&nbsp;award, he has edited or contributed to aerospace and aviation magazines, special publications, and websites in Africa, Asia/Pacific, Europe, the Middle East, and North and South America. Ian entered aerospace as an apprentice at the British Aircraft Corporation at Brooklands (Weybridge), where he worked on production and final assembly lines of the Vickers Super VC10, and BAC One-Eleven , and manufacture of Concorde major sub-assemblies. He subsequently graduated from the BAC Design Training School to work in the airframe structures drawing office (including design of international future projects, such as the Panavia Tornado multi-role combat aircraft) before joining Flight International in 1973. Apart from years of reading aircraft magazines and books, his first direct contact with aviation media had come during the early 1970s when he was involved at Brooklands with the Weybridge Man-powered Aircraft Group, which designed and built the tenth aircraft to fly under purely human power. As an aviation journalist, he has worked at more than&nbsp; 50 of the major biennial&nbsp;global and regional international aerospace industry shows at Le Bourget, Farnborough, Singapore, and Dubai (having missed attending only one "Farnborough" since 1960), plus innumerable NBAA, HAI, (U.S.) AOPA, and EBACE Conventions and ERA Assemblies. His favourite aircraft is the Hawker Hunter, of which – as a schoolboy – he heard hundreds make their first flights from Dunsfold, where also on September 24, 2013, he saw the penultimate landing of the VC10 (happily involving an example of which he had witnessed the maiden takeoff in 1970) a day before the last example made the design's final flight (unless, of course....).

Senior correspondent

Ian Goold

The African Airlines Association (AFRAA) has launched a three-year plan to realign activities with member carriers’ business imperatives. Developed by new AFRAA secretary-general Elijah Chingosho, the plan aims to transform the association into “a pulsating airline association” for Africa.
“AFRAA needs to enhance its relevance to members to deliver the leadership that [they] expect,” said Chingosho. To “achieve critical goals within set timelines,” he proposes “a new vision and strategic direction, including key performance indicators.” An executive committee of nine operators meeting under the leadership of Egyptair chairman and CEO Hussein Massoud has approved the plan, to involve “value-added projects aimed at reducing costs and facilitating airlines’ cooperation.”
The plan introduces “project-specific and time-bound” task teams to ensure “that quantifiable deliverables are achieved.” A “rebranding” includes redevelopment and updating of AFRAA’s website and a new logo, while the group plans to subcontract production and distribution of its Africa Wings magazine.
Chingosho listed priority issues needing support from the African Union Commission as the sustainable development of African air transport, including safety, environment, airline financing at competitive rates and acceleration of the airline deregulation agreed by more than 40 African states in 1999.
Ahead of AFRAA’s November annual general assembly in Morocco, the executive committee plans to meet incoming International Air Transport Association (IATA) director-general Tony Tyler at IATA’s annual general meeting in Singapore in June. The event, which typically attracts up to 200 chief executives from airlines, airliner manufacturers, airports and other IATA industry partners, has moved from Cairo, Egypt, following the political upheaval there.
Last month, IATA signed a memorandum of understanding with the Singapore government to facilitate further development of the airline lobby group’s Asia/Pacific regional office, which employs 80 staff in the city-state.

AFRAA Pledges Better Leadership for African Airlines

 The African Airlines Association (AFRAA) has launched a three-year plan to realign activities with member carriers’ business imperatives.

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