IATA has called on regulators to take urgent action to help civil aviation recover from COVID 19 by devising temporary measures to allow licenses and certificates to remain in-force, and then validate these via ICAO.
IATA says that many aviation regulators around the globe have already taken the necessary steps to provide airlines and licensed crew with the required flexibility, such as extensions to the validity periods for licenses, ratings and certificates, so operational capabilities can be maintained.
However, to be effective, says IATA these measures must be filed with ICAO so that they can be visible to and recognized by counterpart states. Without mutual recognition, IATA warns, airlines are faced with uncertainty over whether they might be restricted by the states whose territory they enter.
‘’Safety is always the top priority. We therefore commend ICAO for their swift action to facilitate the sharing of states’ temporary regulatory extensions, making it easier for states to extend their mutual recognition,’’ said Gilberto Lopez Meyer, IATA’s senior vice president, Safety and Flight Operations.
In order to help with global mutual recognition ICAO has established the COVID-19 Contingency Related Differences (CCRD) system. This enables all states to record any differences to their standard policies and to make a clear statement that they accept other states’ differences through a new form. IATA says this will ensure safe continuity of flights between countries in a harmonized, documented process.