BACA - The Air Charter Association and the
European Business Aviation Association (EBAA) announced their decision to join
forces to combat illegal charter flights - often referred to as grey charter -
where aircraft that have not been approved for paying passengers are used for
charter.
BACA and EBAA will collectively gather data,
via a joint reporting mechanism, in an attempt to gain a more accurate picture
of an activity that clearly puts at risk the safety and integrity of the air
charter market as a whole and those who use it.
BACA and EBAA wish to compile as much evidence
as possible about the practice, where it is most prevalent and who the frequent
offenders are. Both associations will act in close co-ordination with their
members, asking them to help by reporting incidents of suspected illegal
charters. Ultimately this will benefit not just their members but all
passengers, operators, brokers and customers.
Cases of illegal charter often go unreported
and the extent of the problem is therefore unknown. This is compounded by
regulators handling full workloads and the resource drain that proving such
cases represents. In turn, our members have become disillusioned by the
perceived lack of action in dealing with reported cases.
By joining forces on this initiative the two
associations can create a database and a body of evidence to gain traction with
regulators and authorities and to thereby empower them to take steps to deal
with, and reduce, this activity.
BACA Chairman
Richard Mumford
advises: "We are delighted to be cooperating with EBAA in order to build a case
to identify and eliminate cases of illegal chartering. Commercial operations are
heavily regulated with good reason and attempts to circumvent that regulation
present a risk to the market. I am fully aware that our members have lost
confidence in the regulatory enforcement in this area and, in turn, I have every
sympathy with regulators who have a heavy workload and limited resource. The
purpose of this initiative is therefore to gather evidence to help all
stakeholders to assess and deal with illegal charters."
EBAA Chairman
Juergen Wiese
adds: "We welcome this common initiative of BACA and EBAA as it brings together
the two important hinging points, operators and charter brokers, to shed some
light onto the grey and illegal areas of our industry. For EBAA it goes back to
2011 when an initiative was first started with studies and leaflets into raising
the awareness with passengers and NAAs of the legality of some charter flights.
At the time EBAA identified a few drivers like FTL or Runway Performance which
are now about to be removed. A Code of Conduct for EBAA Member Operators had
been established, but Compliance in the interest of Safety for our industry and
its customers must remain the baseline for business growth."
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