All Armenian carriers have been blacklisted by the European Commission, after more than six months of discussions with the Civil Aviation Committee of Armenia over safety concerns relating to its oversight capability. Two Armenian airlines – Aircompany Armenia and Armenia Airways – as well as the Civil Aviation Committee were visited in February by a European air safety delegation, following notification of the concerns the previous October. The on-site visit resulted in multiple findings with particular unease over staff training and serious deficiencies in effective capacity to conduct certification and oversight properly. “It is clear from the assessment visit report that the committee has a systemic weakness in terms of personnel management,” says documentation accompanying the blacklisting decision. The visit revealed the committee lacked procedures to determine manpower requirements and training requirements, as well as their implementation. It also lacked a structured document-management system to assure certification traceability as well as quality-management functions needed to oversee administration and effective transposition of legal, regulatory and technical requirements. “The committee was unable to provide requested evidence of activities performed as part of the initial air operator certificate process for its certified air carriers,” the blacklist documentation states. Examination of the carriers during the visit turned up “several issues”, it adds, which “should have been detected” as part of regulatory oversight. Six operators and the Civil Aviation Committee were invited to a formal European safety hearing on 12 May. These operators included Aircompany Armenia, Atlantis Armenian Airlines, Atlantis European Airways, Armenia Airways, Armenian Helicopters, and hot-air balloon firm Skyball. During the hearing the Armenian committee outlined the safety improvements made since the visit, particularly regarding personnel and document management, improvements to the flight operations department, air operator certification, and inspector training. The regulatory also informed that it had taken steps to revoke certification from Armenian carriers considered non-compliant with international safety standards. While the European safety team acknowledged that the situation in Armenia has resulted from a “long period of inefficiency and neglect”, and that rectification measures are being pursued with government support, they added that the Civil Aviation Committee’s capability to oversee aviation activities is “insufficient” and does not meet minimum standards. “Significant further improvement of the committee’s capabilities will be necessary in order to address the current safety deficiencies,” the blacklist documentation adds, citing the deficiencies with personnel management and training, as well as “inadequate” certification processes and “ineffective” oversight. While the six aviation operators provided evidence to the hearing, they failed to convince the European safety team that they were capable of independent self-regulation. “None of the information or evidence provided by any of the air carriers, before or during the hearing, provided…the assurance that the lack of safety oversight by the Civil Aviation Committee could be mitigated through the air carriers’ own compliance and safety systems,” the documentation says. European transport commissioner Adina Valean says the decision to impose a blanket blacklisting on Armenia was unanimous, but that the Commission and the European Union Aviation Safety Agency are “ready to co-operate and invest in Armenia to improve its aviation safety”.

Source: Cirium

The Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC) will allow more foreign carriers to fly into mainland China, as it rolls out incentives for airlines based on passengers testing positive for the coronavirus. From 8 June, foreign airlines which were previously not allowed to operate to China will now be able to do so, but can only operate one flight a week to a Chinese city of their choosing. While the CAAC did not explicitly state which carriers will be able to benefit from the new easing of restrictions, it is understood that the move will benefit US carriers, which have so far not been able to operate flights to China. In May, Delta Air Lines and United Airlines applied to the CAAC for authority to resume numerous passenger flights between the countries, after suspending their routes due to the coronavirus outbreak. However, the CAAC denied their requests. China restricted the number of international flights into the country in March, in a bid to stem the number of imported coronavirus cases. Its order in March also also prohibited carriers from adding more capacity than they had in schedules on 12 March – a date on which US airlines had no China flights. The CAAC’s latest move comes a day after the USA barred all Chinese passenger carriers from flying into its airports, citing travel restrictions imposed by Beijing on US carriers. Separately, the CAAC has rolled out an incentive scheme for foreign carriers — airlines will be allowed to increase the number of flights per week to two, if there are no incoming passengers testing positive for the coronavirus for three consecutive weeks. If an airline was found to have carried up to five passengers who test positive, they will have to suspend their operations into China for a week, before being allowed to restart flights. If there are 10 passengers, that carrier will suspend operations for a month.

Source: Cirium

IATA director general Alexandre de Juniac believes the new guidelines developed by an ICAO task force strikes "the right compromise" between airline economic concerns and the safe restart of passenger traffic. An ICAO taskforce has published wide-ranging recommendations on measures to support the return of international air travel following the coronavirus grounding. ICAO stops short of requiring airlines to leave middle seats vacant to enable social distancing on flights, but suggests that carriers "should allow for separated seating arrangements when occupancy allows it". IATA was among a range of bodies ICAO's taskforce consulted with in drawing up the guidelines and has called for governments to rapidly implement the recommendations. "The purpose of the guidelines... is to provide a safe process to minimise the risk of transmission of the virus onboard and the transmission of the virus between country A and country B – the country of departure and the country of arrival," said de Juniac, asked during a joint media conference with ICAO today whether it would be safer to leave seats empty. "And what we say is that implementing this process minimises the risk and it doesn't impose to neutralise seats onboard provided we strictly comply with the process that has been recommended – for instance temperature controls, mandatory wearing of masks, etc," he adds "We have explained that for economic reasons neutralising a seat would lead to either airlines not to fly or for them to increase prices by at least 45% to 100% depending on the configuration of the aircraft. "So this is the reason why we think the right compromise is to have reasonable economic conditions and absolutely safe processes to guarantee the safety of our passengers and of our air workers." He believes the new guidelines should provide "great confidence" the air transport sector will restart responsibly. And he argues they should be implemented quickly. "Countries are ramping up domestic operations and many are preparing to open their borders, so these guidelines need to be in place quickly, so that we can safely meet the demands of those who need to travel when its possible to do so," he says. "The implementation needs to be harmonised. We need to implement the take-off guidelines in the same way. The alternative of an uncoordinated implementation, is simply not thinkable or acceptable." While the task force recommendations are not mandatory, ICAO president Salvatore Sciacchitano believes they will be widely adopted. "The council that adopted the reports is composed of representatives from 36 member states, so in this sense I am very confident that the guidelines will be implemented," he says. The wide-ranging recommendations also include measures to reduce risk at airport, for example targeting physical distancing of "at least" one metre between all individuals. Asked about the potential impact on journey time through airports, Angel Gittens – director general of Airports Council International, which has also backed the guidelines – says much will depend on the volume and layout of each airport. "At a large airport with low volume, there should not be much more time needed for the passenger to come to the airport, to keep the physical distancing and other requirements. At a smaller airport, or an airport that has peaking, I would say it's going to be another hour, even two hours, for the passengers to come to the airport."But she adds: "It's very important that these measures take into account of the changes in volume. Some of these things are not sustainable as volumes increases at a particular airport, and that volume depends on the peaking characteristics and the layout of the airport."

Source: Cirium