You are here: Home Activities Technical Flight Crew Licensing

Flight Crew Licensing

What is the issue?

The License of a pilot is a vital document for any pilot. While for decades the rules governing these licenses were determined within the Joint Aviation Authorities (JAA), the European Union has embarked on a process to transpose the JAR-FCL rules into EU-wide provisions. In 2008 the European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) acquired a new mandate to create such rules, and is preparing "Implementing Rules" which will replace the JAR-FCL provisions by 2010/12 at the latest. These "EASA FCL" rules will have a direct impact on the way pilots licenses are governed in future. Whereas JAR-FCL was an "operational" text, easily understood by aviation professionals such as pilots, the new EASA Implementing Rules will be in legalistic language, more difficult to read and more difficult to apply.

How is ECA involved?

ECA has been active in this domain since its establishment, first in the framework of the JAA and now within EASA. In the former JAA days, ECA pilots worked to ensure that JAR FCL reflected the pilots requirements. Now that the EASA develops new FCL rules, the Agency invited a selection of ECA pilots to participate in working groups to effectively transpose JAR-FCL. These working groups contributed to the draft Notice of Proposed Amendments (NPA) for the future Implementing Rules, which will be subject to a wider stakeholder consultation process.

Why is the issue important to ECA?

Obtaining a license is a big responsibility. ECA's aim is to en sure that the standard of initial and recurrent training are always sufficient to ensure the safety and the security of the flights. This is particularly true for new developments, such as the Multi-crew Pilot License (MPL) which risks undermining flight safety if not properly implemented and monitored. It is also true for the future EASA FCL rules that will replace JAR-FCL. As EASA is creating new non-binding rules to allow for more flexibility and to avoid the consultative and administrative burden involved in the changing of rules, ECA pilots aim to ensure that there are no substantial changes in content and that the future EASA FCL rules fully meets the pilots' safety requirements.

Who is responsible?

External Links