Now let's move to Operational Control — Page 8, Lesson 12

I want to walk you through a few critical responsibilities that rest on the Operator — the airline or company that holds the operating licence. These are foundational principles that govern how every commercial flight is run, and they apply to every employee, from the CEO to the ramp agent. First, the Operator has a duty to ensure that all employees, wherever they are around the world, comply with the laws of the state in which they are operating or based. That means if you're a pilot flying into a foreign country, you are not just following your own company's rules or your home country's regulations — you must obey the local laws of the state whose airspace you're in. Specifically, pilots are to be conversant with the rules of the air and ATS regulations — that's Air Traffic Services regulations — for the airspace in which they will be flying. So before you even start the engines, you need to know the local procedures, the phraseology, the airspace structure, and any special rules that apply in that region. Now let's move to Operational Control. This is a specific term with a precise definition. The Operator, or a designated representative, has responsibility for operational control, which is defined as exercising authority over the initiation, continuation, diversion or termination of a flight. So operational control covers the entire lifecycle of a flight — deciding whether to start it, keep it going, send it somewhere else, or cancel it altogether. That responsibility may only be delegated to the commander, who is the Pilot in Command (PIC). And exceptionally, it may also be delegated to the flight operations officer or dispatcher, but only if the approved method of supervision of flight operations requires the use of flight operations or dispatch personnel. So normally, the PIC holds that authority; the dispatcher gets it only under a specific approved system. Next, Safety. The stated aim of ICAO — the International Civil Aviation Organization — is to encourage safe and efficient development and growth of international commercial aviation. To achieve that aim, one of the key tools is the certification of Operators. This is where regulation and the application of auditable standards — standards that can be checked, inspected, and verified — help achieve that aim. Before an Operator is granted an Air Operator's Certificate, or AOC, which is the necessary approval to conduct commercial (revenue earning) operations, the Operator must demonstrate that the operation is not only commercially (financially) viable, but also safe. So the regulator doesn't just check your bank balance; they check your safety systems, your procedures, your training, your maintenance — everything. And here's a specific requirement that flows from that safety principle: the Operator must ensure that not only the destination aerodromes planned to be used are of an acceptable safety standard, but that alternate (diversion) aerodromes are specified which meet the same standards. So if you're planning to land at an airport, that airport must be safe. And if you need to divert — because of weather, a technical problem, or any other reason — the alternate airport you've filed in your flight plan must also meet that same acceptable safety standard. You don't get to pick a substandard airport just because it's closer. Finally, there is a general principle of acceptance of the ICAO Standards and Recommended Practices, known as SARPs, by an ICAO contracting state. The principle is that other states can rely on that acceptance without further — the sentence cuts off there, but the idea is that when a state signs up to ICAO and adopts the SARPs, other states trust that the operator from that state is operating to those standards. That mutual trust is what makes international aviation work without every country having to re-inspect every foreign airline from scratch.