National aviation authorities (NAA) face a dilemma. Aviation is getting much safer, implying big NAAs are not so necessary, but the industry is also getting larger and more technically and operationally complex, which seems to imply a need for more oversight.
The one certainty is that NAAs will not get more resources in the future, and may get less, despite industry growth. There is an argument that aviation safety has got to where it is through traditional compliance-based regulation, but the evidence suggests otherwise: technology has improved safety more than any other single factor, and many existing regulations were made for a different era, so are losing their relevance. It has always been a problem for regulators to stay up to date with advancing technology. The technology experts work for the manufacturers, and the experts in how best to use it work for the airlines. Giancarlo Buono, IATA’s director of safety and operations, Europe, wants to see a partnership, rather than a “Tom and Jerry” relationship between regulator and operator.
John Clark, the UK Civil Aviation Authority’s safety programme manager, is pushing for safety performance outcomes to be specified and overseen, rather than prescribing the means by which they must be achieved.
This performance-based regulation would require partnership between the regulators and regulated, but with the former still retaining enforcement powers.
Source: Flight International
