AVIATION MAINTENANCE REPAIR & OVERHAUL BUSINESS ASSOCIATION, INC AMROBA®inc ADVOCATE OF THE AVIATION MRO INDUSTRY Newsletter Date 17/1/2012 Inquiry Needed?! Volume 9, Issue 1 Irrespective to what many in government believe, politicians, are very good at making press re- most people that are trying to eke out a living in leases and producing reports and documents aviation believe it is time for an inquiry to iden- that highlight what everyone that works in tify the impediments that restrict the growth aviation is totally aware of today — over of the non airline segments of aviation. regulation of a mode of transport. x Pilot shortages It has been recognised for decades that legis- x LAME shortages lation and enforcement do not contribute to x MRO businesses global competitiveness safety or growth. There has been no growth in x International recognition— private aviation for a couple of decades. design/maintenance Since 1992, the use of aircraft as a form of x Diminishing skills private transport has dramatically declined. x Security Geographically, Australia should have one of x Over regulation the best private and charter (air taxi) systems x Micro-management in the world. x Compliance versus safety ‘Impediments’ to the use of aircraft for pri- x “Island Australia” mentality vate and charter (air taxi) is the restrictive After all of the ‘inquiries’ and ‘reviews’ that this regulatory regime that has been applied by industry has been subjected to in the last 20 plus government. years, why are so many in aviation once again It is not just CAR/CASR/CAOs but all the other (continuing) demanding another inquiry. rules that continue to be made so government The simple answer is that findings and recom- looks like it is addressing concerns raised by mendations of past inquiries have never eventu- “whoever”. ated in the eyes of participants in the industry. Whether it is noise and security, aviation itself Talk to government and they will tell you that comes out second in considerations. It is in they have implemented the recommendations — times of natural emergencies that aviation however, what is understood as the “intent” of proves its worth over and over again. the recommendations by industry participants is Aviation adds to the economies of regional obviously very different to what government sees Australia not just by airline growth but it is the ‘intent’ of the recommendations. should be benefiting from the growth in utilisa- What has changed over the last couple of decades tion of private and charter (air taxi) opera- has seen a shift from the ‘rule of law’ concept to tions. ‘rule by the regulator’. This has seen an increas- Red tape is the biggest negative aspect to ing amount of documentation being created. aviation — so many have started in aviation In order for ‘regulated’ businesses to be able to with great enthusiasm to succeed but continual fund investment it is essential that potential lend- fights with local, State and Federal govern- ers and investors have confidence that the regula- ment red tape, continues to dampen those in- tory regime will treat them fairly and give them volved. Younger investors continue to be disil- adequate opportunity to recover costs and earn a lusioned with aviation. reasonable rate of return. Aviation is a form of transport—all levels of This confidence can be easily eroded if the regula- government should be working to remove im- tory regime is seen as taking arbitrary or unrea- pediments to aviation instead of continually sonable decisions. Perhaps more importantly, the adding red tape. increasing complexity of legislation not only multi- There is a need for an inquiry to identify & plies the demand for increasingly specialised legal remove impediments to the growth of interpretation, but it decreases access to our rules aviation as a form of transport before the for ordinary citizens. charter industry is permanently damaged. Government and its agencies, as well as most The Wisdom of Asia Malaysia Airlines’ MAS Aerospace Engineering A decade back many of our members had work (MASAE) unit aims to be the world’s number one contracts in India-Asia/Pacific regions—today airframe maintenance, repair and overhaul they are wondering why Asian governments (MRO) service provider in terms of utilised man- work extremely hard to support their businesses hours within two to three years. (7th Oct 2011) to compete globally and the Australian govern- 1400 new aircraft should have entered global ment appears to make laws that restrict our service by the completion of 2011. Asia Pacific MRO businesses. dominated the order book in 2010, with 29%. Why won’t Asian governments accept the Aus- China alone nabs 10%. Engines represent 46%of tralian ‘Authorised Release Certificate’ that our all MRO services. (IATA/TeamSAI) MRO industry uses to release components back By 2021, the Asia Pacific MRO market will into service. Asian’s accept EASA, FAA, TC and be $21.1 billion of the $69 billion global even NZ Certificates but not ours? market (30%), with China representing AMROBA has raised this issue with CASA and the $7.2 billion. It counts 30% of Asia Pacific Minister — our governments do not, unlike their and 10% of the global MRO market. Asian counterparts, seem to understand that The biggest region for growth in aviation MRO they must remove ‘unique’ Australia require- business will be in the India-Asia Pacific region. ments so that our members can compete with their Asian MRO industries. Malaysia DCA will replace the British Civil Avia- tion Regulations and update DCA practices to be Instead of aligning with EASA/FAA, it is crucial on par with those enforced by the European that the government concentrates on aligning Aviation Safety Authority (EASA). As such, DCA within this region without the additional costs of policies and procedures with regards to regula- individual organisations gaining approvals from tions, certification, approval and examinations each country in this local region. will be replaced by EASA standards. Asia has isolated Australia from access to their Even the United Arab Emirates Civil Aircraft aviation markets simply because we create Regulation CAR Part V Chapter 4—Part M is a unique bureaucratic driven aviation regulations. direct adoption of the EASA Part M instead of our Every State Government should be demanding unique requirements created by CASA directions the Federal Government adopt the EASA mainte- to the AGs. nance regulations without change so their State In the 1980s, governments were determined to aviation MRO businesses can grow and compete remove unique Australian regulatory require- in the India & Asia Pacific region. ments to enable Australian aviation to compete Australia did it with CASR Part 21 when it copied globally—the current maintenance regulations the FAR Part 21 to the advantage of small manu- are so different from our Asian neighbours that it facturers so it is time for change to benefit MRO is very unlikely that ‘harmonisation’ will ever businesses. happen in Australia. Australia is well placed in the India/Asia Pacific It is obvious that the current government will region to provide aircraft component mainte- not direct ‘harmonisation by adoption’ which we nance to the growing aviation industry in this have advocated for some time. region. The Asian countries with their “business” wisdom AMROBA would like to see government set up a adopted the EASA regulations so why can’t we? team to negotiate aviation agreements with our Asian countries, with their centuries of business Asian and Pacific neighbours so that there is acumen, realised that to compete in the global freedom to compete in these markets. aviation market you do not restrict your own Europe and North America have trading zones industry by enforcing unique local requirements but we have not seen government working to set on your own industry. Singapore, Malaysia, Hong up an aviation zone in the India/Asia Pacific re- Kong, etc were quick to “adopt” EASA require- gion. ments even to adopting EASA personnel training Most of the problems confronting the Australian standards. small MRO industry is the free trade arrange- Asia Pacific is also predicted as the biggest re- ments in Australian aviation legislation. The gion for aviation growth but it will be restricted problem is that it is one way, inwards not out- by the lack of skilled workers and pilots. wards. If Australia had a government with the same Or is it that our costs are prohibitive in the business acumen as in Asia, it would stop mak- global aviation market, especially the local re- ing unique laws that continue to restrict our gion. The India Asia Pacific Region are educating businesses access to the Asia Pacific region. their resources but with a lower wage structure, they are very competitive. Page 2 Volume 9, Issue 1 AMROBA®inc Safest year since 1945—IATA Accidents and fatalities decreased globally last year, x loss of in-flight control; except in Russia, according to IATA. x ground damage; and It was the best year (so far) for air safety since IATA x in-flight damage, began recording accidents and incidents. Asia Pacific Annual Report: For the Asia Pacific region, The first 11 months of 2011 was the safest period to safety performance continues to improve overall. How- travel by plane since 1945, according to the Interna- ever, the region did experience one major accident, tional Air Transport Association (IATA). with the loss of a Boeing 747 freighter in South Korea. "As of the end of November, global safety performance Overall however, the safety performance trends of Asia (for Western-built jets) is at the best level recorded, Pacific based airlines continue to improve. Smaller Asia and is 49 percent better than the same time last year," Pacific based operators have seen dramatic improve- said Gunther Matschnigg, senior vice president for ments in safety performance over the past decade, safety, operations and infrastructure for IATA.