EASA’s Airport rulemaking section participated in an ICAO Aerodrome Certification Task Force meeting on Sunday 12 to Monday 13 May for the Middle East region. EASA was able to explain its upcoming rules for aerodrome safety to 30 participants from Bahrain, Kuwait, Lebanon, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Sudan and the UAE, as well as the US (FAA).  EASA invited the countries to harmonise with its rules and the International Cooperation Department will be developing a dedicated activity on airports to this end in 2014 and will also follow up with technical assistance to those countries part of its EU-funded projects, assisting with airport safety in countries such as Lebanon and Jordan.

On 10 May 2013 the Agency published the NPA on ‘Requirements for ATM/ANS providers and the safety oversight thereof’ as a result of comprehensive work involving ATM experts and stakeholders’ representatives in the framework of dedicated rulemaking groups. This NPA follows the adoption and implementation of Commission Implementing Regulations (EU) No 1034/2011 on safety oversight in air traffic management and air navigation services and 1035/2011 laying down common requirements for the provision of air navigation services. It covers the requirements for ATM/ANS providers and safety oversight, accompanied by Acceptable Means of Compliance and Guidance Material (AMC/GM) where necessary,  in order to cover aspects on safety, proportionality and regulatory coordination. The NPA covers also the providers eligible to (self-) declaration. The NPA may be found here.

Comments on the NPA may be addressed via the CRT tool. In order to facilitate a good understanding on the NPA and to support the stakeholders on the consultation process the Agency organises a dedicated workshop explaining the content of the NPA on 2 July 2013 in Cologne. More details could be found here.

Conference on Future Aerodrome Rules in Europe 17-19 April 2013, Bucharest, Romania

The Romanian Civil Aeronautical Authority (RCAA) in cooperation with the European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) is organizing the Conference on future aerodrome rules in Europe, between 17 and 19 April 2013, in Bucharest, Romania.

The main theme of this event is the aerodromes package with requirements for the national aviation authorities, aerodrome operator organizations and aerodrome operations.

The recently published EASA Opinion 01-2013 presents a mature platform for adopting the future Aerodromes (ADR) Regulation by the European Commission. The Conference will be the first important, formal event, after the publication of the Opinion and, therefore, a potential forum for the participants - representatives of the national aviation authorities and of the aerodrome operators - to be informed by EASA on the draft future rules and to have an exchange of views on the next steps to be taken by all the actors involved in order to ensure compliance with the future rules.

Please find here the provisional agenda of the conference. The Conference will be conducted in English language. More details of the conference you can find on the Romanian CAA internet site: http://www.caa.ro/

EASA Draft Opinion for future EU aerodrome rules is published

The EASA Opinion for a Commission Regulation laying down requirements and administrative procedures related to aerodromes has been published on Tuesday, 5 February 2013 on EASA internet site: http://www.easa.europa.eu/agency-measures/opinions.php

Amended Regulation (EC) No 216/2008 extended the responsibilities of the European Aviation Safety Agency to the areas of ATM/ANS and aerodromes. This new responsibility mandated the Agency to prepare draft safety rules for aerodromes as well as common rules for certification and oversight by the National Aviation Authorities (NAAs)

This Draft Opinion consists of the following documents:

• Draft Cover Regulation on Aerodromes with its Annexes:
• Annex I — Part Authority Requirements (Part-ADR.AR)
• Annex II — Part Organisation Requirements (Part-ADR.OR)
• Annex III — Part Operations Requirements (Part-ADR.OPS)

The purpose of this Opinion is to assist the European Commission in laying down Implementing Rules (IRs) for Aerodromes in handing over the final deliberations of the Agency on the matter at stake. Those IRs are supposed to be adopted by the European Commission and to enter into force by the end of the year 2013. The Draft Opinion includes changes to the draft ADR Regulation based on the reactions which were given to the CRD, during the publication period ended on 3 February 2013. Within this reaction period, the Agency has maintained a constant high level of coordination with Member States and stakeholders to ensure all reactions are adequately dealt with. EASA believes that this Draft Opinion is based on strong consensus and presents a mature platform for adopting the future EU ADR Regulation.

Non-binding material (Acceptable Means of Compliance (AMC), Guidance Material (GM) and Certification Specifications (CS)) underpinning these future IRs has been developed in parallel and is envisaged to be adopted by the Agency and enter into force at the same time as the IRs. Different from the process for the IRs above, this underpinning material remains with the Agency before adoption and therefore is given more time to be adjusted and finalised during the year 2013.

On 16 January EASA organised the “EASA Workshop on NPA on the licensing and medical certification of air traffic controllers”. At the superb location of the Hyatt Regency Cologne 120 registered stakeholders were informed on the Notice of Proposed Amendment (NPA 2012-18) regarding the licensing and medical certification of air traffic controllers which has been published on the EASA website for public consultation on 22 November 2012.

EASA organised the workshop focusing on the proposed set of rules. The draft rules were introduced by experts who participated in the subject rulemaking group. Views were exchanged with stakeholders on the proposed licensing and qualification requirements, as well as on the requirements applicable to competent authorities, air navigation service providers and ATCO training organisations to ensure compliance with the rules. The presentations that have been held are on our event page

Comments on the NPA may be addressed to EASA via the CRT tool as indicated on the EASA website until 1 April 2013.  The NPA may be found here

Comment Response Documents (CRDs) to NPA 2011-20

On November 26, 2012, EASA published the Comment Response Documents (CRD) to NPA 2011-20 - Authority, Organisation and Operations Requirements for Aerodromes.
The publication consists of 4 pillars with the following Documents:

CRDs (Comments and Responses + Resulting Draft Text, in CLEAN)

• CRD 2011-20 (B.I) – Draft Cover Regulation + Implementing Rule
• CRD 2011-20 (B.II) – Draft AMC/GM
• CRD 2011-20 (B.III) – Draft Certification Specifications

CRDs (Comments and Responses ONLY)

• CRD 2011-20 (A) – NPA Explanatory Note
• CRD 2011-20 (B.III) Corrigendum – Corrigendum to NPA B.III
• CRD 2011-20 (C) – Cross References
• CRD 2011-20 (D) – Regulatory Impact Assessment (RIA)

Resulting Draft Text ONLY, in CLEAN

• CRD 2011-20 (A) – NEW Explanatory Note
• CRD 2011-20 (B.I) – Draft Cover Regulation + Implementing Rule
• CRD 2011-20 (B.II) – Draft AMC/GM
• CRD 2011-20 (B.III) – Draft Certification Specifications

Resulting Draft Text ONLY, with VISIBLE CHANGES compared to NPA text

• CRD 2011-20 (B.I) – Draft Cover Regulation + Implementing Rule
• CRD 2011-20 (B.II) – Draft AMC/GM
• CRD 2011-20 (B.III) – Draft Certification Specifications

To view a particular document, please go to the Agency’s web page containing CRDs and click on the corresponding name. All documents are ‘pdf’ files. The CLEAN ‘Resulting draft texts’ reflect the assessment of all comments received during the consultation period, the thematic review meetings and consultations with the experts from the competent authorities and industry. For reader’s convenience and to see the changes made on the original NPA text, the ‘Resulting draft texts’ are also available in ‘visible changes’ version.

The publication of these CRDs follows the work of stakeholder representatives (competent authorities and industry) that originally started in 2010 in dedicated rulemaking groups. The relevant NPA 2011–20 - Authority, Organisation and Operations Requirements for Aerodromes was published in December 2011. The consultation period on this NPA finished in April 2012, after which the Agency performed the assessment of all received comments and suggestions.

The public and stakeholders are now asked to give their reactions on the CRD documents by February 3, 2013, following which, the Agency will review all reactions and produce and submit the ‘final opinion’ to the EU Commission. The relevant Decisions will be published by the Agency, once the Implementing Rules are adopted by the Commission.

If you would like to react on the CRDs please logon to the Agencies CRT website which provides a tool to place your comments.

International Conference on Future Aerodrome Rules in European Union, 15 – 16 October 2012, Poreč, Croatia

International Conference on Future Aerodrome Rules in European Union, organized by Croatian Civil Aviation Agency (CCAA), together with European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) has been held on 15 and 16 October 2012, in Valamar Riviera Hotel in Poreč, Croatia.

The main topics of the conference were proposals for new European rules related to aerodromes, as well as new requirements for national aviation authorities and aerodrome operator organizations concerning oversight, management and safe conduct of aerodrome operations. The conference brought together around 100 participants – representatives of National aviation authorities and aerodrome operator organizations of Croatia and neighbouring countries, Airports Council International (ACI), academic communities and EASA.

The purpose of the conference was to present proposed new aerodrome rules and the methods of their implementation, as well as to provide a platform where national aviation authorities, aerodrome operators, academic communities, ACI and EASA could discuss and clarify all potential issues.

Up to the present there were no harmonized and agreed rules on aerodromes at EU level; every member country independently managed its national regulation. This practice led to distinctive differences not only in their national rules, but also in their applied practice. Objective of the future European rules, currently under development, is to standardize national rules (including applied practice) of the EU member states related to aerodromes. Proposed set of new aerodrome rules has been entirely harmonized with the provisions of Annex 14 of the Chicago Convention of the International Civil Aviation Organization.

Croatian Ordinance on Aerodromes (Official Gazette no.64/12), which entered into force in May 2010, is also completely based on Annex 14 of the Chicago Convention, and therefore content – wise it is already in line with future EU rules. Due to this fact, Croatian aerodrome operators do not have to expect any drastic novelties in the field of aerodrome regulation once Croatia becomes EU member.

Overall conclusion from the conference is that it has significantly contributed to all attendees of the conference in the better understanding of the basic principles of the future aerodrome rules in European Union.

Statements of Omer Pita and Gernot Kessler

Conference on the “Future aerodrome safety rules”
The event was held from 21 to 22 May 2012 in Cologne and was organised by the responsible section in the Department for ATM and Airports of the Rulemaking Directorate. The conference brought together over 200 representatives of airports, national aviation authorities and stakeholder associations and coincided with the end of the consultation period for the NPA 2011-20 on the rules for aerodrome safety. On day one of the conference the EASA colleagues presented the proposed implementing rules and elaborated on the concepts of the aerodrome certification basis and the foreseen mechanisms and transition period for the conversion and acceptance of existing aerodrome safety certificates issued by the EASA Member States. On day two the Agency’s Executive Director, Patrick Goudou, addressed the conference and praised the collaborative spirit in which this part of the 2nd extension of EASA’s responsibilities is being undertaken. Thereafter EASA gave more information on the certification specifications and their use, which are based on the ICAO Annex 14. Following this Philipp Ahrens from Airports Council International, the largest industry association in this sector and other external speakers from the NAA’s of Italy, the Czech Republic and Norway all confirmed the positive spirit of the rulemaking process. Further fine-tuning of the rules would be necessary yet no major challenges exist. Before the conference continued with thematic workshops on technical matters, such as runway safety, SMS and questions of conversion of existing certificates, the Rulemaking Director thanked all participants and reminded that aerodrome safety had previously not been touched by European harmonisation and that achieving agreed European rules for this sector would close the safety loop for the aviation domain. The conference closed after the works shops. The next step for EASA will be the analysis of the 9000 comments received and the publication of responses to them in a Comment Response Document (CRD) to the NPA in the summer. Moreover there will be events promoting and explaining the future European rules before preparing the EASA opinion for the European Commission at the end of the year.

More information can be found here

Aerodrome Safety Regulators meeting:  EASA has hosted the 60th joint meeting of the Management and Working Group of Aerodrome Safety Regulators (GASR) on Tuesday 24 and Wednesday 25 January. The Group, which was founded in 1996 and involves representatives from 30 states, is mainly working on harmonisation of aerodrome requirements in Europe. The group will continue its work in support of EASA by sharing the knowledge and expertise on aerodrome safety.

A study launched by EASA to obtain an overview of the state of the implementation of the provisions contained in ICAO Annex 14 on Aerodromes in the EASA Member States has been completed recently. A Horizontal Report (anonymised) is now published on the Agency’s internet page.

Better cooperation and partnership: EASA-Eurocontrol Workshop took place in Brussels. Please find the workshop report here.

The Basic Regulation foresees that by the end of 2013, the implementing measures for aerodrome safety shall be adopted. To this end, the Agency has planned the necessary rulemaking activities.

On the initiative of Espen Slyngstad, Director Aerodromes and ANS of the Norwegian CAA, an EASA information day on the 2nd extension was held in Oslo, Norway, on 22nd January 2010.

The well organised event was open to all Nordic CAAs, air traffic service providers and aerodromes as well as industry. Led by EASA’s Director of Rulemaking, Jules Kneepkens, the morning session featured detailed presentations by EASA representatives. The views of the European Commission were also presented. The afternoon featured dedicated breakout sessions on ATM/ANS and aerodromes, enabling participants to discuss in more detail the subjects of the morning. 144 experts – almost 50% more than expected - were able to make it to Oslo for this regional event.