The International Air Transport Association (IATA) has called on aviation regulators to take urgent action to help civil aviation operate seamlessly and safely between states during the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as to help facilitate the restart when the virus is contained.
IATA asked states to work with the aviation
industry to find temporary measures to ensure that licenses and certificates
critical to managing aviation safety are extended to remain valid; file their
temporary measures with the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO)
and recognize the measures of other states that are filed with ICAO.
According to IATA, many aviation
regulators around the globe have already taken the necessary steps to provide
airlines and licensed crew with the required flexibility, such as extensions to
the validity periods for licenses, ratings and certificates, so operational
capabilities can be maintained.
IATA
noted that these measures must be filed with ICAO so that they can be visible
to and recognized by counterpart states. Without mutual recognition, airlines
are faced with uncertainty over whether they might be restricted by the states
whose territory they enter.
‘’Safety is always the top priority. We therefore commend ICAO for their swift
action to facilitate the sharing of states’ temporary regulatory extensions,
making it easier for states to extend their mutual recognition,’’ said Gilberto
Lopez Meyer, IATA’s Senior Vice President, Safety and Flight Operations.
At present, many of the world’s aviation regulators are not able to perform
their standard administration of various licenses, as their operations have
also been impacted by the COVID-19 outbreak. In order not to further impede
global aviation, ICAO has established the COVID-19 Contingency Related Differences (CCRD) system.
This enables all states to record any differences to their standard policies
and to make a clear statement that they accept other states’ differences
through a new form. This will
ensure safe continuity of flights between countries in a harmonized, documented
process.
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