EASA To Relax GA Regulation..?

When the EASA meeting board met on 13 March 2012, one of the items on their agenda was the regulation of General Aviation. The discussion revolved around the proposal as to whether a fresh look needed to be taken on the regulation of GA (General Aviation) within the EASA system.

The Board agreed that although the subject was complex and difficult, action needed to be taken because there were serious risks that GA would significantly decline and/or that non-compliance would increase.

It was further agreed that the acceptable level of risk for GA must be higher than that for Commercial Air Transport Operations, that more effort was needed to avoid mixing regulations for these different kind of operations and that the simplicity and accessibility of GA rules should be increased.

As a result of these conclusions, a small group of experts (around 10 maximum) is to be set up, under the leadership of the Deputy Chair to the Board (Maxime Coffin), comprised of Agency, stakeholder, NAA and Commission experts to develop broad top-level guidelines for how GA could more effectively and proportionately be regulated.

This recent development may provide many GA pilots with a glimmer of hope that EASA will act positively to ensure the regulations become clearer and simpler to adhere to.

Further information can be found through the CAAs Information Notice IN–2012/055. We look forward to monitoring this with interest and will report back with their latest developments once published.