European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) executive director Patrick Goudou says early indications are that the organisation’s charges to industry for certification monitoring and approvals have been “a little too low”, although it is “too early to be certain”. EASA is required to recover its costs from industry.
The current fees, charges and tariffs were approved by the European Commission in June and EASA does not have the power to change them. If Goudou finds his initial impression is justified, EASA can apply to have its charges increased for 2006.
The agency still has to contract out work to the national aviation authorities (NAA) because its resources are insufficient, but the authorities say the system by which they are paid for their services by EASA is not working properly.
“There has been some delay, as the process states that everyone has to prove the work is paid for [by the industry receiving the service] before commencing, which many NAAs are not used to,” says Maxime Coffin, director of air safety at the French airworthiness body DGAC.
Source: Flight International
