ICAO Regional Director Pitches Support to Seychelles Ahead of 2027 Audit
VICTORIA, Seychelles —
Seychelles is preparing to host its second ICAO aviation safety audit in three years, after the Eastern and Southern African (ESAF) regional director of the International Civil Aviation Organisation, Lucy Mbugua, paid a courtesy call on the Minister for Transport, Ports and Civil Aviation, Veronique Laporte, on Wednesday at Botanical House in Victoria.
Mbugua and her team are in Mahé ahead of the ICAO Universal Safety Oversight Audit Programme under the Continuous Monitoring Approach (USOAP CMA), scheduled for 25 August to 7 September 2027. The mission will assess the country’s effective implementation of international aviation safety standards, focusing on the eight critical elements of a safety oversight system that ICAO tracks in every member state. The framing is technical, not adversarial, and the mission is the second such audit since the Seychelles Civil Aviation Authority was created in 2021 through a deliberate separation from the older Seychelles Airports Authority.
The Seychelles Nation print edition reported on the call on Thursday, and the article notes that Mbugua briefed the minister on the mission’s outcomes and presented key recommendations to strengthen the country’s readiness for the audit. The delegation praised the SCAA for “its dedication and congratulated Seychelles on the successful separation of the SCAA from the Seychelles Airports Authority, describing it as an important milestone in line with ICAO standards.” The split, completed in 2021, was meant to give the new regulator a clear, aviation-only remit, separate from the operational mandate of the airports authority that still runs the terminals and runway infrastructure.
Discussions also covered closing outstanding aviation regulations and reinforcing the SCAA’s regulatory role, with the ICAO delegation offering continued technical support. The new civil aviation law and a National Civil Aviation Security Programme are still under preparation, and the regional office is to support Seychelles in finalising both before the 2027 audit. Mbugua thanked the government for its commitment to the sector and said her office would further enhance Seychelles’ preparations for the audit and help maintain the highest international aviation safety and oversight standards, according to the report.
The visit sits inside a broader ICAO reform of the USOAP CMA, which the Council is evolving to prioritise higher-risk states from no later than January 2027, as set out in an Assembly working paper on the continued improvement of the audit programme. The proposed priority window is not open-ended, capped at 24 months, and is meant to give the agency the bandwidth to focus on the countries that need the most help while keeping the global monitoring framework running. For a state like Seychelles, that means attention from ICAO depends less on audit size and more on the depth of the recommended corrective actions the regulator is asked to carry out.
The USOAP CMA results and reports portal tracks the effective implementation scores for each state, and the USOAP Insight newsletter of August 2025 sets out the 2026-2028 evolution of the programme, including data-management changes in the Online Framework.
The SCAA chairperson is Fock Tave, with Conrad Benoiton as vice-chairperson, and Garry Albert as chief executive. Florence Marengo, director of Aviation Development and Economic Regulations, was also present at the courtesy call, alongside David Bianchi, principal secretary at the Department of Ports and Civil Aviation, and Wilfred Lozé, the head of the relevant directorate inside the SCAA. Minister Laporte welcomed the recommendations and reaffirmed the government’s commitment to strengthening civil aviation oversight. Tourism and the wider economy both depend on a continuously safe and certified aviation system, the underlying logic of the audit regime.
The visit comes as the international airline market into Seychelles continues to grow on the back of the country’s 50th anniversary of independence year. Mbugua’s call signals that the regional ICAO office is willing to back Seychelles’ regulator with technical support as it gears up for the 2027 audit, in line with the broader reform agenda the Council has signalled for the years ahead.
📷 Photo: Henrickson via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0
Sources cited: Seychelles Nation, “ICAO regional director pays courtesy call on Minister Laporte,” 3 July 2026; ICAO, USOAP CMA overview and Continuous Monitoring approach; ICAO, USOAP CMA results and reports; ICAO, Assembly working paper A42-WP/376 on USOAP CMA evolution; ICAO, USOAP CMA Insight newsletter, August 2025.
Source: SN
