EASA aims to sharpen ground-handling safety with unifying regulation

European authorities are proposing a broad ground-handling regulation aimed at increasing safety and consistency of processes while preparing for flight departure and dealing with flight arrival. Ground-handling has been “largely self-regulated”, says the European Union Aviation Safety Agency, with operational arrangements – including safety tasks – contained in bilateral agreements with carriers. But the desired level of standardisation of procedures and training is “not yet consistently achieved”, it states. It adds that responsibility for safety of handling services has tended to lie with airlines, rather than the handling provider – and aircraft operators should “no longer bear alone” this burden. EASA’s proposal seeks to establish a “level playing-field” for provision of handling, ensure a “safety baseline” and set minimum training standards. It will establish a legal framework to support development of a safety culture and enable effective exchange of safety information. These measures are intended to reduce the “high number” of industry audits performed each year in the handling sector, adds EASA – perhaps as many as 600 for a single handling organisation with 100 stations. “The resources spent on so many audits that produce the same results are counterproductive,” it states. “The efficiency of verifying a [ground-handling] organisation’s compliance with the requirements and with the operational procedures should be improved.”<br/>