Israel's parliament is legislating to change its safety oversight system structure to allow the country to regain Category 1 status under the US Federal Aviation Administration's International Aviation Safety Assessment Programme next year. It was in January 2009 that the FAA downgraded Israel's safety category to 2 (fail).
The state's anachronistic aviation laws, one of the causes of Israel's demotion to Category 2, are under scrutiny in the Knesset. Other issues are being dealt with in close co-operation with an FAA team that visits Israel every eight weeks.
Giora Rom, general manager of the Israel civil aviation authority, said on 10 August that the exact date of regaining Category 1 depends on this approval process for the law. The downgrading mainly affects the operations of El Al on the route to the USA and its codeshare agreement with American Airlines.
Israeli aviation law is based on a statute only slightly amended since 1927, and it had not been harmonised with modern international requirements.
The civil aviation authority says it has formed a special team that is working on seven other key issues. These are mainly connected to regulatory enforcement.
Source: Flight International
