Northeastern Aviation Awarded EASA Third Country Operator CertificateNortheastern Aviation is proud to announce that it has been awarded one of the first European Aviation Safety Agency’s (EASA) Third Country Operator (TCO) Certificates, allowing them to travel to the 32 EASA states with a single safety authorization.
ABOUT THE EUROPEAN AVIATION SAFETY AGENCY
EASA was established in 2002 and is made up of 800+ aviation experts and administrators. They are headquartered in Cologne, Germany with an office in Brussels, Belgium. There are 32 EASA Member states including all European countries plus Switzerland, Iceland, Norway and Liechtenstein. In addition, there are three international permanent representations from China, USA and Canada.
EASA’s mission is to:
- Ensure the highest common level of safety protection for European citizens.
- Ensure the highest common level of environmental protection.
- Single regulatory and certification process among Member States.
- Facilitate the internal aviation single market and create a level playing field.
- Work with other international aviation organizations and regulations.
EASA THIRD COUNTRY OPERATOR CERTIFICATION
TCO is a flight safety (not aviation security) assessment. TCO addresses security-related issues only to the extent that these are relevant to flight safety and part of an ICAO (International Civil Aviation Organization) standard applicable to air operators pursuant to ICAO Annex 6 (e.g., CCTV, reinforced cockpit door, etc.).
EASA is looking to reduce the time consuming procedures of the past with this new approach and seeks to replace the confusion of individual country authorizations with a single document while, at the same time, maintaining the highest level of aviation safety in Europe. We are hopeful that it will speed up the permit application process for TCOs as well.
By the end of 2016, any operator who wishes to travel to the 28 member states of the European Union and 4 EFTA states (Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway and Switzerland) must have been issued this Certificate or they will be banned from flying to the Union. Previously, operators had to apply for operating permits from each European country. Under the new rule, however, the EASA TCO approval is a single safety authorization valid in all EASA member states.
Receiving this EASA Third Party Operator Certificate is a testament to the high safety and performance standards Northeastern Aviation continually achieves and we congratulate the team at Northeastern Aviation for their accomplishment.
