The aviation industry managed to achieve an excellent safety record in recent years. An important factor contributing to today’s aviation excellent safety record is aircraft continuing airworthiness.
I am pretty sure that, if you work in the aviation industry you hear this term frequently and if you do not, I will try to help you understand what it is.
What is Continuing Airworthiness?
The European Union Aviation Safety Agency defines Continuing Airworthiness as follows:
“All of the processes ensuring that, at any time in its operating life, the aircraft complies with the airworthiness requirements in force and is in a condition for safe operation”
Airlines, Operators and aircraft owners have an obligation to ensure that their aircraft or the aircraft they use for their commercial operation are airworthy at all times. Airworthiness is not something you achieve once but it is a continuous effort, throughout the aircraft’s lifetime in service, which is intended to ensure that the aircraft is basically safe for flight operations.
Continuing airworthiness is achieved by continually ensuring, among others, that:
- The Aircraft’s Technical Records are maintained up to date;
- Each Aircraft in active service is maintained in accordance with an approved maintenance programme;
- That the aircraft maintenance programme is effective and leads to a reliable aircraft;
- Ordering and procuring maintenance service to ensure all the maintenance tasks listed and required by the aircraft maintenance programme are carried out in their due time;
- All airworthiness directives issued by EASA or the competent airworthiness authorities addressing potential safety issues are evaluated and actioned in due time;
- Any non-mandatory Service Bulletins, modifications issued by the Original Equipment manufacturers are evaluated and risk assessed. If such Modifications are related to any identified flight safety risks or improves the reliability of aircraft than these should be embodied;
- Ensuring that all repairs and modifications embodied on the aircraft throughout its lifetime are well documented and implemented following the approved procedures;
- Monitoring those components requiring their own maintenance actions, frequently called Hard Time components;
- Monitoring the usage of any Life Limited Parts and components installed on the aircraft, so as they are replaced and retired in time before their Life Limitation is overdue;
- Monitoring deferred defects;
- Ensuring a techlog system is in place to keep track of all the technical issues and maintenance status of the aircraft;
- Ensuring a pre-flight walkaround procedure is defined and that the operating pilots are trained adequately to perform such pre-flight inspection procedure;
- Ensuring fast reaction in case something is technically wrong with the aircraft whilst in operation (example in the case of a system malfunction, a Bird Strike, lightning Strike or damage caused by ground handling equipment)
The above list is not exhaustive however it is quiet clear that maintaining an airworthy aircraft at all times is not easy feat and requires competence, teamwork and a good management system.
In order to ensure that airworthiness engineers are competent at their tasks EASA Mandates the following on EASA approved Part-CAMO organisations
The organisation shall establish and control the competency of personnel involved in compliance monitoring, safety management, continuing airworthiness management, airworthiness reviews or recommendations, and, if applicable, issuing permits to fly, in accordance with a procedure and to a standard agreed by the competent authority. In addition to the necessary expertise related to the job function, competency must include an understanding of safety management and human factors principles appropriate to the person’s function and responsibilities in the organisation. - EASA 1321/2014 CAMO.A.305(g)
Right now, the aviation industry is seeing a big increase in demand, which started after the COVID pandemic. According to the International Air Transport Association (IATA), passenger demand went up by 10.7% in May 2024 compared to May 2023. Major aircraft manufacturers like Airbus and Boeing have a lot of orders, keeping them busy until the early 2030s. This means there will also be a higher demand for airworthiness and maintenance engineers.
Additionally, the aviation sector is undergoing a technological revolution. New technologies like autonomous systems, advanced materials, electric planes, and eco-friendly propulsion systems are and will be putting more pressure on the current workforce.
Airlines need to plan ahead for their fleet development and ensure their airworthiness monitoring organizations are ready to integrate new aircraft. They must have all the necessary systems, tools, personnel, processes, and procedures in place as required by airworthiness authorities.
Therefore, airlines and airworthiness maintenance organizations must plan and train their staff to meet these challenges and take advantage of future opportunities.
With this in mind, we have designed our CAMO training programs to help organizations train airworthiness engineers and prepare them for the future.
Our EASA Part-M / Part-CAMO Regulations Training is intended to ensure participants have a deep understanding of the regulatory landscape related to continuing airworthiness whereas our Aircraft Maintenance Management training is designed to provide engineers a 360 degree perspective on the world of CAMO.
