Operator Supervision and Certification — Page 31, Lesson 44

I want to walk you through the section on Operator Supervision and Certification, which lays out the regulatory framework that governs how an airline—the operator—gets and keeps its Air Operator Certificate, or AOC. First, let’s talk about the ongoing obligation once an operator has submitted an application for an AOC. The operator is required to notify the Authority—that’s the national civil aviation authority—of any changes to any of the required information or procedures after the application has been submitted. So if something changes in the operator’s structure, equipment, or procedures, they must tell the Authority immediately. Now, if for any reason the Authority is not satisfied that the requirements have been complied with, the Authority has the power to ask for one or more demonstration flights. These demonstration flights are to be carried out as if they were full Commercial Air Transport, or CAT, flights. So the operator has to prove, in real operation, that they meet the standards. Let’s move to the Contents and Conditions of an AOC. The Air Operator Certificate itself will specify several key items. I’ll run through them: - The name and location—the principal place of business—of the operator. - The date of issue and the period of validity. So the certificate has a start date and an expiry date. - A description of the type of operation(s) authorized. This tells you what kind of flying the operator is allowed to do—scheduled, charter, cargo, etc. - The types, and marks or variant types, of aeroplanes authorized for use in the operation. So it lists the specific aircraft models and their variants. - The registration markings of the authorized aeroplanes. That’s the tail numbers of the individual aircraft. - The authorized areas of operation. This defines the geographical regions the operator can fly in. - Any special limitations imposed by the Authority. These are restrictions the Authority places on the operator. - The special authorizations and approvals, if any, granted by the Authority. These include: - CAT II/III operations, including the approved minima. That’s low-visibility approach and landing operations with specific visibility and decision height limits. - Operations in MNPS airspace—Minimum Navigation Performance Specifications airspace, which is used over the North Atlantic. - Extended Twin-engine Operations, or ETOPS. This allows twin-engine aircraft to fly long routes far from diversion airports. - Area Navigation Operations, or RNAV. That’s navigation that doesn’t require flying directly over ground-based beacons. - Operations in accordance with Reduced Vertical Separation Minima, or RVSM. That allows aircraft to fly at reduced vertical separation—1,000 feet instead of 2,000 feet—above Flight Level 290. - Operations involving the transportation of dangerous goods by air. - Authorization to provide cabin crew initial safety training. Now, let’s look at the Terminology section. These terms are defined for use within the context of this regulation. First, Adequate aerodrome. This is an aerodrome which the operator considers to be satisfactory, taking account of the applicable performance requirements and runway characteristics. At the expected time of use, the aerodrome must be available and equipped with necessary ancillary services. Those services include Air Traffic Services (ATS), sufficient lighting, communications, weather reporting, navigational aids (navaids), and emergency services. So an adequate aerodrome isn’t just any airport—it has to meet the operator’s performance needs and have all the supporting infrastructure in place when it’s needed. Second, ETOPS, which stands for Extended range operations for two-engine aeroplanes. ETOPS operations are those with two-engine aeroplanes approved by the Authority—that’s the ETOPS approval—to operate beyond the threshold distance determined in accordance with EU-OPS from an adequate aerodrome. So ETOPS allows a twin-engine aircraft to fly routes where, at any point, it is farther from an adequate aerodrome than a certain distance—the threshold distance defined by the regulation. The key point is that the aircraft must have specific approval from the Authority to do that. That covers the core of this excerpt. We’ve looked at the operator’s duty to notify the Authority of changes, the Authority’s power to demand demonstration flights, the specific contents and conditions of an AOC, and the definitions of “adequate aerodrome” and “ETOPS.”