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Project SS 07/05
A Proposal by CASA to Change CAOs 82.1; 82.3; 82.5 and 82.7 to Require AOC Holders to Provide Information via a Biannual Survey

Purpose/Objectives

CASA is seeking a variation to CAO 82.1, 82.3, 82.5 and 82.7. It is proposed that AOC holders provide information about their operation to CASA for the purpose of identifying safety related initiatives, surveillance requirements and strategic resource planning. The information sought includes, but is not limited to:

  • Aircraft hours and number of landings  
  • Type and extent of operations undertaken  
  • Passenger carrying activity undertaken  
  • Aircrew and key organization personnel  
  • Maintenance responsibilities  
  • Base of operations  
  • Operating environment and flight rules

It should be noted that a) the Operators are, or should, already be providing much of the information to be sought by CASA to DOTARS, and (b) CAR 132 provides a similar responsibility to keep and provide information.

Consequently the affect of the change is one of clarification of responsibilities rather than of imposing a new regulatory requirement.

Background

CASA needs better information on the aviation industry in order to make continuing improvements to the way the safety oversight of the aviation industry is managed.  In particular, CASA requires more data on the activities of various sectors of the industry to better assess risks and to direct safety oversight activities. This proposed change focuses on collecting data from holders of Air Operator’s Certificates (AOC).  

Biannual Survey

CASA proposes that all holders of AOCs be required to take part in an electronic survey to be conducted by CASA that will collect relevant and up-to-date information on their activities.  The survey will collect a range of operational data from AOC holders.  

To make sure the data CASA collects is accurate, every AOC holder will be asked to go to their business records and extract the relevant information.  However, CASA understands that in some cases information may not be available right now in the appropriate format, so an informed estimate will be accepted for the first survey.  However, in future surveys CASA will require accurate data to be used.

If AOC holders have given CASA a correct email address, they will be sent an email with a link to an on-line version of the survey.  The on-line survey will take less time and entering data will be simpler.  However, an AOC holder not having an email addresses will be sent a paper version of the survey.  If an AOC holder is sent a paper version of the survey and wants to complete it on-line, instructions will be provided on how to do this.

AOC holders can make answering the survey questions easier by anticipating the proposed change and making sure they have easy access to all operational information now.  Many of the questions will be easy to answer and will not require an extensive check of records, however, some require operational information.  Having the information on hand will make the job easier at survey time.

Information requested

As part of the survey AOC holders will need to check their records to find information about the use of each aircraft on their AOC.  They will need to know:

  • Total hours flown for each aircraft  
  • Total numbers of landings for each  aircraft.

They will also need to break down this data by the type of operations flown.  Categories of operation that AOC holders will be asked about are:

  • RPT  
  • Passenger transport charter  
  • Recreational charter (Balloon AOC and GA  Sightseeing included but Glider AOC not included)  
  • Medical flights  
  • Flying training  
  • Agricultural work  
  • Other aerial work and freight only.  

The majority of questions will relate to operators conducting operations in the first two AOC categories above (i.e. passenger carrying activity).

If an AOC holder does not have the precise information in their records, CASA will accept a reasonable estimate for the first survey.  

In its electronic form the structure of the survey question set will be such that questions relevant only to RPT/Passenger Transport Charter will be eliminated from the question set for operators conducting just operations in the other AOC categories.

AOC holders may need to check other information including the address and Certificate of Approval of their maintenance provider and the year in which key personnel, such as chief pilot, were appointed.

Once the AOC survey is fully established CASA is planning to repeat it every six months. This will ensure that CASA always has up-to-date and relevant information on the aviation industry.  It will also make filling out the survey form easier for AOC holders as there will be less data to collect and input.  Once air operators have completed the exercise a few times, it should prove to be straight forward and routine.  Later versions of the survey will have many of the fields ‘pre-populated’ with routine information to save time and effort.  AOC holders will then only have to check this ‘pre-populated’ information for accuracy.

Rationale

Right now CASA has some of this information, but not all.  By getting this data directly from AOC holders, CASA will know that it is accurate, up-to-date and comprehensive.  This data will then be used to inform CASA’s safety oversight of the aviation industry.  CASA will be able to better prioritise oversight activities such as surveillance, make more accurate judgements of risks within the industry and how these can be addressed and offer better targeted safety support to the industry.

One of the aims of the AOC survey is to streamline the process of collecting information from air operators.  It will help make surveillance of AOC holders easier, with less ‘paper-work’ questions for our inspectors to ask.  In addition, it will help CASA make better decisions about the need for surveillance of air operators and how much resource to expend on that surveillance.  CASA will be able to make more accurate decisions about how to direct its surveillance resources to priority sectors, which are the passenger-carrying operations.

The AOC survey will also replace the current Organisation Annual Return, which many air operators currently fill in.  All AOC holders were required to provide information for the Organisation Annual Return – either directly or by providing information to CASA field offices.

Security of Data

CASA assures all air operators that the data collected on individual AOC holders will be kept in-confidence by CASA.  It will only be used for legitimate safety purposes and will not be shared with any other organisation or individual.  CASA may release some of the ‘big picture’ results of the survey to the aviation industry, as this will be of interest and benefit to the industry as a whole.  But this information will not identify any AOC holders or their operations.

Status

Order amendments have been made and project closed.

Order amendments:

Project approved by Group General Manager, Air Transport Operations Group.

Project registered on 26 June 2007.

Project management

Project sponsor: Patrick Murray
Project Leader: Stephen Ginpil

Project priority

High

Contact details

Email: Stephen Ginpil

Project SS 07/05