RESEARCH 2 AIR LAWS

EASA (European Union Aviation Safety Agency)

The EASA is an agency of the European Union that is responsible for civil aviation. It is tasked to
manage certification, regulation, and standardization, and also perform investigation and
monitoring. It collects and analyses safety data, drafts and advises on safety legislation, and
coordinates with similar organizations in other parts of the world. EASA was established in 2002
by Regulation (EC) No 216/2008 of the European parliament and the Council to ensure a high and
uniform level of safety in civil aviation and became operational on 28 September 2003 as an
independent body of the European Community with its own legal personality. Its headquarters is
located in Cologne, Germany (set up in 2004) and a representative office in Brussels, Belgium.
EASA has taken over the responsibilities of the former Joint Aviation Authorities (JAA) system
which ceased on 30 June 2009. It is not a successor agency since EASA is Regulatory Authority
which uses NAAs (National Airworthiness Authority) to implement its Regulations whereas the
JAA relied upon the participating NAAs to apply its codes without having any force of law at
source. EASA has 32 member states, the 28 states that are also members of EU and four others
namely: Switzerland, Norway, Iceland, and Liechtenstein.
EASA is represented by its Executive Director. The Executive Director alone is empowered to
take decisions and adopt acts concerning safety and environmental protection. The Executive
Director is appointed by the Agency's Management Board. The Board is responsible for the
definition of the Agency’s priorities, the establishment of the budget and for monitoring the
Agency’s operation. The Management Board is composed of one representative of each Member
State and one representative of the Commission. The Management Board elects a Chairperson and
a Deputy Chairperson from among its members. The EASA Advisory Board assists the
Management Board in its work. It comprises organizations representing aviation personnel,
manufacturers, commercial and general aviation operators, maintenance industry, training
organizations and air sports. The Agency's budget is financed by a contribution from the European
Community, fees and charges for publications and training provided by the Agency.

ICAO (International Civil Aviation Organization)

The ICAO is a specialized agency of the United Nations that changes the principles and techniques
of international air navigation and fosters the planning and development of international air
transport to ensure safe and orderly growth. ICAO is responsible for safety, registration,
airworthiness, prevention of economic waste, fair competition, standardization, and aviation law.
The forerunner to ICAO was the International Commission for Air Navigation (ICAN) which
operated until 1945. ICAO was established in 1944 to manage the administration and governance
of the Chicago Convention on International Civil Aviation in which fifty-two countries signed
(December 7 1944). In October 1947, ICAO became an agency of the United Nations under its
Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC).
The headquarters of the organization is located in the Quartier International of Montreal, Quebec,
Canada. ICAO works with the Convention’s 193 Member States and industry groups to reach
consensus on international civil aviation Standards and Recommended Practices (SARPs) and
policies in support of a safe, efficient, secure, economically sustainable and environmentally
responsible civil aviation sector. These SARPs and policies are used by ICAO Member States to
ensure that their local civil aviation operations and regulations conform to global norms, which in
turn permits more than 100,000 daily flights in aviation’s global network to operate safely and
reliably in every region of the world.

IATA (International Air Transport Association)

The International Air Transport Association (IATA) is the trade association for the world’s
airlines, representing some 290 airlines or 82% of total air traffic. It supports many areas of
aviation activity and helps formulate industry policy on critical aviation issues. For air carriers,
IATA provides a polled resource for scheduling, traffic and routes, standardizing services and the
creation of a worldwide public service for the air industry. For consumers, IATA sets the
international standard for services and business practices amongst member airlines. As an
example, the three-digit airport codes used internationally are an IATA convention.
IATA was founded in Havana, Cuba, on 19 April 1945. It is the prime vehicle for inter-airline
cooperation in promoting safe, reliable, secure and economical air services for the benefit of the
world's consumers. The international scheduled air transport industry is more than 100 times larger
than it was in 1945. Few industries can match the dynamism of that growth, which would have
been much less spectacular without the standards, practices and procedures developed within
IATA. At its founding, IATA had 57 members from 31 nations, mostly in Europe and North
America. Today it has some 290 members from 120 nations in every part of the globe.

JAA (Joint Aviation Authorities) / JAR (Joint Aviation Requirements)

The JAA was an associated body of the European Civil Aviation Conference (ECAC) representing
the civil aviation regulatory authorities of a number of European States who have agreed to co-
operate in developing and implementing common safety regulatory standards and procedures. The
JAA was established in 1970. Originally its objectives were to produce common certification codes
for large aeroplanes and for engines in order to meet the needs of European industry and
international consortia. After 1987 its work was extended to flight operations, maintenance,
licensing and certification/design standards for all classes of aircraft.
The adoption of the Regulation (EC) No 1592/2002 by the European Parliament and the Council
of the European Union (EU) and the subsequent establishment of the EASA created a Europe-
wide regulatory authority which will eventually absorb all the functions of the JAA. By
implementation of the Future of JAA Report the JAA transitioned into a new phase as of 1 January
2007. In this new phase the former 'JAA' became 'JAA T' (Transition) which consisted of a
temporary Liaison Office (JAA LO) and a Training Office (JAA TO). The offices of JAA LO
moved to the premises of EASA in Germany in 2007 and closed on 30 June 2009. The JAA TO
has now become 'JAAT', a commercial training organization, and remains at the old JAA HQ at
Hoofddorp, Netherlands. At present, only the training organization, JAA-TO, remains.

The Joint Aviation Requirements (JAR) were a set of common comprehensive and detailed
aviation requirement issued by the Joint Aviation Authorities, intended to minimize Type
Certification problems on joint ventures, and also to facilitate the export and import of aviation
products.
Prior to the creation of the European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) the Joint Aviation
Authorities (JAA) was responsible for publishing regulations governing the operations,
maintenance, licensing and certification/design standards for all classes of aircraft. These
regulations were introduced after long consultation to achieve common ground between the states
involved. These regulations are known as Joint Aviation Requirements (JARs). JARs had no legal
status until they were ratified by national governments, but many European countries adopted all
or part of JARs as the basis for their own national regulations. With the creation of EASA, JARs
were amended as necessary and brought into EU legislation so that they are binding on all EU
nations.
JARs comprise two parts:
• Part 1 contains the regulations themselves;
• Part 2 contains supplementary material:
o Acceptable Means of compliance (AMCs)
o Advisory Circulars Joint (ACJs); and,
o Interpretive and Explanatory Material (IEMs).
Any amendment to JARs is preceded by the publication of a Notice of Proposed Amendment
(NPA) and a consultation period.

FAA (Federal Aviation Administration) / FAR (Federal Aviation Regulations)

The Federal Aviation Administration (formerly called Federal Aviation Agency) is a governmental
body of the United States with powers to regulate all aspects of civil aviation in the nation as well
as over its surrounding international waters. The FAA’s key activities are safety regulation;
airspace and air traffic management; air navigation facilities; civil aviation abroad; commercial
space transportation,; and research, engineering and development.
The FAA was established by the Federal Aviation Act of 1958 (72 Stat. 731) replacing Civil
Aeronautics Administration (CAA). The agency became a component of the Department of
Transportation in 1967 pursuant to the Department of Transportation Act (49 U.S.C. 106).
FAA is managed by an Administrator, assisted by a Deputy Administrator. Five Associate
Administrators report to the Administrator and direct the line-of-business organizations that carry
out the agency's principle functions. The Chief Counsel and nine Assistant Administrators also
report to the Administrator. The Assistant Administrators oversee other key programs such as
Human Resources, Budget, and System Safety. FAA also has nine geographical regions and two
major centers, the Mike Monroney Aeronautical Center and the William J. Hughes Technical
Center.

FAR are rules prescribed by the FAA governing all aviation activities in the United States. The
FARs are part of Title 14 of the Code of Federal Regulations (CFR). A wide variety of activities
are regulated, such as aircraft design and maintenance, typical airline flights, pilot training
activities, hot-air ballooning, lighter-than-air aircraft, man-made structure heights, obstruction
lighting and marking, model rocket launches, model aircraft operations, Unmanned Aircraft
Systems (UAS) and kite flying. The rules are designed to promote safe aviation, protecting pilots,
flight attendants, passengers and the general public from unnecessary risk.
ATA (Air Transport Association)
ATA chapters, also called ATA 100 System Codes, are a way of categorizing the various systems
that are on a plane originally created by the Air Transport Association. ATA 100 contains the
reference to the ATA numbering system which is a common referencing standard for commercial
aircraft documentation. This commonality permits greater ease of learning and understanding for
pilots, aircraft maintenance technicians, and engineers alike. The standard numbering system was
published by the Air Transport Association on June 1, 1956. While the ATA 100 numbering
system has been superseded, it continued to be widely used until it went out of date back in 2015,
especially in documentation for general aviation aircraft and the electronic and printed manuals.
In 2000 the ATA Technical Information and Communications Committee (TICC) developed a
new consolidated specification for the commercial aviation industry, ATA iSpec 2200. It includes
an industry-wide approach for aircraft system numbering, as well as formatting and data content
standards for documentation output. The main objectives of the new specification are to minimize
cost and effort expended by operators and manufacturers, improve information quality and
timeliness, and facilitate manufacturers' delivery of data that meet airline operational needs.