In March 2020, the consortium of CAA International (CAAi), and two Spanish organisations, AESA (Spanish Aviation Safety and Security Agency) and FIIAP (the International and Ibero-American Foundation for Administration and Public Policies) marked the first year of the SAFER-U programme (Strengthening the Aviation Framework and European Regulations for Ukraine). The project is funded by the European Union and was launched in 2019 to harmonise Ukraine’s aviation regulatory framework with EU standards.
In its first year, project experts commenced work on the verification of the Ukraine’s existing legislation against the European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) Basic Regulation EU 2018/1139, EU 965/2012 and EU 1178/2011. Experts provided the State Aviation Administration of Ukraine (SAAU) with upgraded Air Operations and Flight Crew Licensing procedures and checklists. The new procedures will enable industry to comply with the European requirements and will reinforce passenger safety.
Last year, the project experts commenced work on strengthening the authority’s institutional capacity in Air Operations and Flight Crew Licensing. The experts developed a staffing needs and training system analysis and introduced training program for inspecting staff. These documents will help the SAAU perform staffing analysis independently in the future and allow the authority to assign the duties to their inspectors efficiently, ensuring the fulfilling of the requirements according to the regulations. Experts have also prepared the Oversight planning procedure for the Commercial Air Transport. New procedures introduce the performance-based oversight approach, with more flexibility for oversight planning.
In January, the project delivered its first workshop to commercial air transport operators on new flight time limitation (FTL) regulations from the EASA. The workshop introduced participants to the differences between Ukraine’s existing FTL regulations, and the new EASA FTL standards. Attendees were able to evaluate their organisation’s flight slots, roster management, cabin configurations and rest locations against EASA FTL requirements.
The project plays a key role in facilitating preparations for the implementation of provisions stemming from the Common Aviation Area agreement between the EU and Ukraine.
Richard Dobson, CAAi Senior Manager and Contract Manager for SAFER-U commented, “The first year of the SAFER-U project marks an important milestone towards Ukraine’s civil aviation regulatory reform. Working with our consortium partners and our regulatory counterparts in Ukraine, we are committed to ensuring the successful adoption of EASA regulations”.
The escalation of the COVID-19 pandemic has impacted the project activities planned between March and August 2020. The consortium has taken measures in accordance with the official advice to restrict or postpone certain activities. In this context, the key experts continue working in Kyiv from their homes on the desktop activities.
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