CAA INTERNATIONAL AND BAINES SIMMONS JOIN FORCES TO PREPARE AIR OPERATORS FOR NEW EASA REGULATIONS

Aviation safety expert Baines Simmons has been selected by CAA International (CAAi), a commercial subsidiary of the UK Civil Aviation Authority and training provider to industry, to enter a joint training initiative in order to provide training for flight operators and regulators on the requirements driven by the new Part OR and Part AR regulations being introduced by EASA in June 2011.

Under EC Basic Regulation 216/2008, the world of flight operations is transitioning to a new regulatory system and a totally new reformatted horizontal regulatory structure.  In the long term, the new regulations will have huge impact on all those working in the aviation industry but initially they will affect flight operators and regulators.  All those working in this sector of the aviation industry need to make all the necessary changes to their ways of working to ensure they are compliant with the EASA regulations before the compliance date of 8 April 2012.

To comply with the new regulations, the flight operations sector will need to meet the EASA operations and safety requirements within a transition window of nine months.  The implementation of SMS rules in the general organisational requirements is the aspect that is likely to be the most significant challenge in the industry, as this area has not previously been regulated so there has been no need to demonstrate compliance.  These new rules will necessitate work on safety and operations manuals as well as further requirements that have yet to be published, including Fatigue Risk Management and cabin crew attestations among others.  The impact of this is heightened by the emphasis being placed on the operators to demonstrate their means of compliance with the regulations.

The initial training for those in the flight operations sector is currently being designed in collaboration between Baines Simmons and CAAi.  The training is licensed by CAAi and its development is the first step towards creating a suite of courses that will run into the future and which will adapt as the EASA requirements mature.

Designed to meet the demands of the transition, there is a one-day course introducing flight operators to the new requirements.  For an audience of senior management, Accountable Managers and nominated post holders, this course highlights the difference in the new EASA requirements for operators, from the former EU-OPS and JAR-OPS 3 and will help organisations to prepare for the impact of the new European regulations.

There is a second two-day course designed for regulatory management and, more specifically, for flight operations inspectors – those who need to understand the transition to the new European regulations and structures.  This is initially designed as mandatory training for the UK CAA flight operations inspectorate and is highly relevant for inspectors of national aviation authorities in all EASA member states.  It is also applicable to competent authorities outside Europe who follow EASA-style regulations, for example some of the states in Asia and Australia.

“CAAi’s aim is to provide practical and relevant training courses which enable organisations to understand and interpret the regulations with which they have to comply,” states John Heather, training operations manager at CAAi.  “We have been very fortunate to combine Baines Simmons course development expertise with our Flight Operations specialist knowledge to develop this suite of courses and believe the collaboration will benefit those organisations who require expert guidance through this transition.”