The International Air Transport Association (IATA) has called on regulators to take urgent action to help civil aviation operate seamlessly and safely between states during the COVID-19 pandemic as well as to help facilitate the restart when the virus is contained.
Specifically, IATA asked states to work with the aviation industry to find temporary measures to ensure that licenses and certificates critical to managing aviation safety are extended to remain valid.
It also called for filing their temporary measures with the International Civil Aviation Orgsation (ICAO) and recognise the measures of other states that are filed with ICAO.
IATA said many aviation regulators around the globe have already taken the necessary steps to provide airlines and licensed crew with the required flexibility like extensions to the validity periods for licenses, ratings and certificates so that operational capabilities can be maintained.
However, to be effective, these measures must be filed with ICAO so that they can be visible to and recognised by counterpart states. Without mutual recognition, 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 for Safety and Flight Operations.
At present, many of the world's aviation regulators are not able to perform their standard administration of various licenses, as their operations have also been impacted by the COVID-19 outbreak.
In order not to further impede global aviation, 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.
"This will ensure safe continuity of flights between countries in a harmonised, documented process," said IATA that represents some 290 airlines comprising 82 per cent of the global air traffic.
( With inputs from ANI )