Public

Europe is showing a misplaced pride in the new wave of liberalisation in air transport. The ongoing and recently concluded air transport agreements with 3rd countries still carry a strong liberal footprint but have made only a modest attempt at protecting fair competition and EU social standards. If Europe is serious about maintaining high social standards and fair competition in aviation, it should quickly get its act together.

When in 2015 the European Commission presented its Aviation Strategy, it became clear that negotiating Air Transport Agreements (ATAs) would be high on the priority list. It was the first pillar of the Strategy and a list of third countries were picked for negotiations. The (now former) EU Transport Commissioner Bulc had a vision for the EU aviation sector to be “a world leader”, reaping the benefits of the booming Gulf and ASEAN markets. With an already fully liberalised European internal market, the only liberalisation still possible was through such ATAs with 3rd countries, even if they were not always eager to go as far as the EU Commission wanted them to.

The aviation sector is particularly exposed to non-compliance with applicable law and misapplication of EU legislation in general. The reason identified by many is the transnational nature of the airlines’ operations and, consequently, the highly mobile character of the pilots/aircrew jobs that makes it difficult to determine the law applicable to employees as well as the State(s) with the regulatory oversight responsibility (incl. in the employment and taxation domains).

From its inception, Boeing’s 737 Max was designed to save airlines the expense of training pilots on flight simulators. Simulator training costs money, which few in the aviation industry are keen on spending. “No additional simulator training” became a key – and successful – selling point for the MAX, which is perhaps symptomatic of the entire aviation industry’s race to the bottom and intense commercial pressure in all parts of the aviation chain.

The latest batch of internal Boeing messages reveal the extent to which Boeing management was obsessed with achieving and defending a common type rating for the MAX and the NG. An obsession that would contribute to two deadly accidents. The messages show management was dictating to its employees that they should block any regulatory requirement for airlines to train pilots in a simulator on the differences between the 737 MAX and its predecessor the 737 NG. Worse, Boeing persuaded Lion Air to forgo simulator training for its 737 MAX pilots.

A bright sunny day, but a persistent stratiform cloud blocks the view of the runway when approaching the minimums. Or even worse, more than sufficient visibility, but a thick cloud layer extends below CAT 1 minimums and Low Visibility Operations (LVO) are not (yet) activated… A go-around seems imminent while the weather forecast and ATIS information may not have caused you to expect this course of action. 

This is why we put together brief guidance with mitigating measures that could help crews operating into any airport, where a ceiling/vertical visibility is not considered when deciding on the type of operations.

An approach in instrument meteorological conditions (IMC) may only be continued below the appropriate minimum if the required features of the landing runway, the runway or the approach lights are in sight at these minimums. The required visibility assures that the lights are within a distance from the pilots’ eyes that it is physically possible to see them.

Follow this link to read the first edition of ECA’s News in Brief.

Europe’s pilots are shocked and deeply saddened by the shooting down of Ukrainian Airlines flight PS752 in Iran and the killing of all on board. This comes only a few years after the downing of Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 (MH17), in 2014. It is tragic proof that some lessons from MH17 on flying into or over conflict zones have not been learnt, and that Europe has no effective system in place to reduce those risks. Having seen major airlines continue flying to Tehran in the days after the shooting down – despite the security threat – European pilots call for urgent and pragmatic solutions.

“It is clear that we cannot rely on conflict-stressed states to restrict or close their own airspace. We must in principle rely on our national authorities and our airlines to make sure that the lives of passengers and crew are adequately protected and this unchecked risk is addressed,” says ECA Secretary General Philip von Schöppenthau. ”However, purely national, uncoordinated action has not done the job in the past and won’t do it in the future,” he continues. “Individual Member States clearly do not share their security intelligence about conflict zones sufficiently to provide protection. As long as this is the case, and nothing substantive occurs through a dedicated European structure, we will see further flights taking unnecessary risks.”

Adina-Ioana Vălean – This is the name aviation professionals in Europe will hear very often in the next 5 years. As the new EU Commissioner in charge of transport Ms Vălean will be the driving force of safe, efficient, sustainable and socially-responsible transport in Europe. Behind those terms is an ambitious agenda, already outlined by the new Commissioner – who comes from Romania – at the EU Parliament hearing earlier this year.

The time has come: Early November ICAO launched real-time worldwide space weather update service. Three Space Weather Centers (SWXC) will generate and share space weather advisories using the existing channels, similar to SIGMET. The advisories can thereby go directly to aircraft operators and flight crew throughout the flight as standard meteorological information. 

The advisories are providing the most up to date information possible on any solar events, which could potentially impact aircraft systems or passenger health.

Members of Europe’s leading aviation associations have today published a joint paper setting out the principles to support the safe integration into European airspace of unmanned aircraft, or ‘drones’.

This is one of the most critical issues facing the aviation industry today. Drones will revolutionise many aspects of everyday life, from the way people travel, to agriculture, policing, mapping, deliveries, maintenance, asset management and construction. However, their proliferation also raises questions about how to handle their integration without compromising safety or security or disrupting current airspace operations.

The We are ALL ONE in the Sky initiative, which brings together representatives from the airline, airport, air navigation service, manufacturing, staff associations and beyond, has set out five key principles that  ‘U-Space Regulation’, currently under development by the European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) and the European Commission, should meet. They cover aspects such as the importance of information exchange between all airspace users, the need to ensure the safe integration of drones in the airspace – as opposed to purely segregating them from other users of the airspace – and the fundamental importance of ensuring that today’s exceptionally high safety standards are maintained.

The We are ALL ONE in the Sky initiative supports the creation of a proportionate, risk- and performance-based regulatory framework to enable the drone services industry to flourish, and – crucially – to provide for a safe, secure and efficient operation of manned and unmanned aviation.