Will there ever be a universal pilot's licence?
David Learmount/LONDON
LIKE THE "UNIVERSAL" language Esperanto, a world-standard for pilots' licences seems like a good idea, but no-one puts it into practice. Unemployed pilots dream of being able to follow work wherever in the world the demand is at the time, but differences in pilot-licensing requirements often stop them doing so.
Although there is an International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) standard for pilots' licences, there is no universally accepted pilots' licence based on it. Like many ICAO standards, it is a fairly loose definition of basic requirements which individual nations can interpret and expand. Meanwhile, just as English is taking on Esperanto's unfulfilled role, gradually becoming the world's language of international communication, so it looks as if an existing pilots'-licence system will - gradually - become the universal one.
Either that, or the world will polarise between the US and European licence standards: these are the US Federal Aviation Administration licences or the new European Joint Aviation Regulations flightcrew licensing (JAR-FCL) system, due for adoption in June.
The ground has already been laid for the process. For many years, in developing countries and many others, pilots with either FAA or any of the disparate Western European national pilots' licences have been accepted as expatriate employees if there is a shortage of trained local pilots. Australasian pilots, whose own licence systems have evolved from the UK Civil Aviation Authority model, have the same experience. These "Western" licence standards, developed in countries with mature aviation and commercial-air-transport industries, have effectively been adopted as the world's gold-standard currency of piloting. Almost all nations have licensing systems based on either that of the FAA or on one of the European systems.
Only the CIS nations, having for so long been isolated, could be said also to have a truly indigenous licensing system. CIS air-transport standards now subject to strenuous internal review against ICAO standards, however, are moving towards harmonisation with JAR-FCL. So pilots with Australasian, US and Western European (soon to be JAR-FCL) licences could be said to have most of the world at their feet, assuming that they can obtain work permits. It is easy to forget that the latter are necessary, just as they are for other categories of employment. As the UK CAA's head of FCL, Des Payton, says: "A pilot's licence is a licence to fly a particular type of aeroplane, not a right to work." Recently, the issue of non-UK pilots being invited by UK airlines to work for them on restricted-term contracts caused controversy among UK pilot unions. In one case - British Airways' plan to hire USAir pilots for a few months until new ab initio trainees were ready for line flying - was dropped. In another, British World Airways could not find the combination of type-rating and experience levels it required on the home market, so it applied to hire foreign pilots.
The CAA explains that, if a UK airline wishes to hire non-European pilots, it has to provide a good reason for doing so. Even if the foreign pilots taken on by a UK carrier are Europeans from a JAA member country in the European Union (EU), they have to undergo a CAA competency check before a temporary licence validation can be issued - and the validation is limited to a maximum of six months. The validation/competency-check requirement is an EU law, not just a UK one. The CAA emphasises, however, that, while it has the power to grant licence validation to a foreign pilot, it is a UK Government decision as to whether a permit to work is granted.
The adoption in June of the JAR-FCL system will permit much freer movement in Europe of pilots who hold licences which are convertible to the new European licence standards, or who have just completed JAR-FCL-approved courses. The ultimate intra-European freedom will be within the Joint Aviation Authorities nations which are also EU countries, so there are no work-permit barriers either.
A serious step in the direction of a genuinely universal licence has been taken, according to the JAA's FCL department at Hoofddorp, in the Netherlands. The FCL issue was added to the JAA/FAA harmonisation programme in June 1995. Exactly where this will lead - if anywhere - is not certain yet because the transatlantic FCL deliberations are still at the feasibility study stage. The first report on the feasibility of a harmonised JAA/FAA licence is expected at some time in 1997, according to Hoofddorp.
THIRD-WORLD STANDARD
Issuing a licence is only one part of a proper licensing system. There have to be provisions for oversight and supervision of type-rating and currency checks. Pakistan International Airlines chief pilot for corporate safety, Capt Amjad Faizi, says: "It may be of interest to know that, in almost all Third-World countries, route and simulator checks of flightcrews are supervised by their own senior line pilots as the regulatory bodies cannot [afford to employ] qualified professional airline-oriented pilots. Unpleasant as it may sound, the fact remains, that in Third World countries, the regulatory bodies exercise only a rubber-stamp authority, and are therefore treated with scant respect." In addition, Faizi accuses these authorities of being "...sadly lacking in any desire to remain abreast of the latest technological developments".
Faizi emphasises how weak any licensing system is unless it is backed up by effective, well-resourced, well-qualified national-aviation- authority oversight. He explains what happens if this is not the case, saying: "The overall scenario, supported by the inadequacy of the regulatory bodies, would invariably result in sub-standard professional training of airline personnel. This adverse condition is further aggravated by the complacent, rather detached, attitude of the higher management, who are mostly political appointees without any knowledge or experience of airline operations."
UNIVERSAL COMPETENCE
It is not going to be easy, even if it is seen as desirable, to achieve a universal standard for pilot licensing. The greater problem, however, would seem to be in setting up the oversight systems in all parts of the world, to ensure that the so-called standard is not, in some countries, merely an exercise in rubber-stamping.
Source: Flight International
