9 November 2006
The House of Commons Transport Committee’s report on ‘The Work of the Civil Aviation Authority’ is now out. It touches on a number of topics, but the one which has caught all the headlines is the attack on EASA.
“It is with dismay that we have learnt of the chaotic state of the European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA), which at this time is not able to fulfil its declared purpose. EASA is an accident waiting to happen – if its problems are left unchecked, we believe it has the potential to put aviation safety in the UK and the rest of Europe at risk at some point in the future,” says the Committee.
In reference to this, the report says that “The United Kingdom cannot and must not transfer any further powers from the CAA to EASA until the Government is assured that the serious problems of governance, management and resources at EASA have been resolved. We welcome the Minister’s assurances on this.” This rather seems to go against the DfT’s comments (<a href=’newsfeed.php?artnum=341′ target=’_blank’>reported yesterday</a>) on the N-reg issue, that EASA should be left to sort out various things, such as the instrument rating and foreign registrations.
The committee is also critical of the level of communication between the DfT and the CAA, and of the fact that the CAA is not subject to scrutiny by the National Audit Office.
Speaking specifically about General Aviaton, in paragraph 167 of the report, the committee says: “We heard a wide range of concerns raised by members of the general aviation community in relation to over-regulation by the CAA and bias towards the commercial aviation sector. We therefore welcome the completion and publication by the CAA of both its Strategic Review of General Aviation in the UK and its Regulatory Review of General Aviation in the UK, and we support the recommendations they make. It is particularly important that efforts are made to improve dialogue between the general aviation community and the CAA, in order to ensure that the concerns of the general aviation community are incorporated into the CAA’s regulatory work. In addition the transparency of the CAA’s consultations should be improved, in order to lessen perceptions among the general aviation community of bias towards the commercial aviation sector. We are concerned to note the findings of the CAA’s Strategic Review in
relation to future potential skilled labour shortages in aviation, and we urge the Government and the CAA to work with the general aviation sector to help it continue to contribute to future skilled labour supply.”
We’ll be bringing a fuller reaction to the Committee’s paper in the January issue of <b><i>FLYER</i></b>.
The full report is on line at <a href=’http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm200506/cmselect/cmtran/809/809.pdf’ target=’_blank’>Publications.Parliament.uk</a>.
