In a notice of proposed amendment (NPA) published on Tuesday, EASA addresses what it calls “safety issues related to the lack of regulatory operational framework for non-commercial operations performed by air operator certificate (AOC) holders with aircraft listed in the operations specifications," such as when business aircraft conduct positioning, maintenance check or training flights, among others. To this end, the NPA contains a minimum list of elements to be considered in the risk assessment process when the AOC holders follow operational procedures other than those normally used for their commercial air transport operations.
Under the new requirements, EASA said, “AOC holders will thus have flexibility in establishing operational procedures commensurate with the level of risk of certain types of non-commercial operations.” The NPA also creates a list of non-commercial flights to standardize the various names used by industry to identify the same (or similar) types of flights. Comments are due by June 30. A final decision on the requirements is scheduled to be made by the third quarter of 2017.
