Mackenzie Morgan – Aerospace Consultants

Airworthiness and Other Operational Post Holders

You are still keen on having your own airline; you have started the process to obtain your licences and approvals, you’re are employing an army of consultants and you’re negotiating for your aircraft; it is all done? Not quite! You will need approved post holders for all disciplines; operations, training, airworthiness, ground operations and you as the accountable manager responsible for the whole operation.

The post holders will be required to have an interview from the CAA to asses their suitability for the post; the CAA has and will continue to reject potential post holders because their experience is not appropriate to the operation envisaged. It is not jobs for the boys! In the early days, you may be able to satisfy the requirements with contracted or part-time post-holders.

Looking first at the Post Holder Operations, what are their obligations? He will be either the Head of Flight Operations or the Chief Pilot, and is ultimately responsible for all matters relating to the operation of the aircraft.  He will be type rated on your chosen aircraft, or capable of achieving the rating, have previously held a senior management position, it is also advantageous in the early days if they have been a training captain or similar.  He will be responsible for:

• All the Operations Manuals and their updating to reflect changes;
• Operational decisions, crewing scheduling, flight planning solutions;
• Development of the airline’s MEL and CDL;
• Crew training, where there is not initially a Head of Training;
• Response to safety management system violations.

If you’re chosen fleet will have two or more aircraft types and it is intended to grow both types the Post Holder Operations will have a senior pilot for each type reporting to him.

Next the, Head of Training, he should be an experienced training captain and examiner, where possible he should be type rated on the chosen aircraft; where it is a new type, he should be rated on an aircraft from the same class; for example a training captain from an executive aircraft operation will not be accepted for a Boeing 737 scheduled airline. He will be responsible for:

• The training syllabus;
• Part D of the Ops Manual, the Training Manual;
• Supervision of all operational checks required by captains and first officers;
• Response to safety management system violations.

Head of Ground Operations can have a floating brief over and above those core requirements of:

• Establishment of the ground handling agreements at all destinations;
• Management and amendment of the Ground Operations Manual;
• Acting as Head of Security and developing the airlines responses to various threat scenarios;
• Management of the Ops Room and flight planning support functions
• Response to safety management system violations.

Finally, Post Holder Airworthiness assuming that you are going to outsource all activities he will be accountable for the service provider’s actions, in particular:

• Scheduled and un-scheduled defect rectification:
• Continued airworthiness management tasks, aircraft utilisation monitoring, maintenance planning, approved technical data assessment and management of the maintenance programme;
• The issue and continuance of the Certificate of Airworthiness for the fleet;
• Response to safety management system violations.

If you are not outsourcing all activities there will be a number of other airworthiness and maintenance related post holders.

As you can see all the required post holders have a responsibility for their own areas for violations of the Safety Management System, they discharge that responsibility through the establishment of local Safety Action Groups. At least annually they will meet as the airlines Safety Management Board.

The post holders in a new airline are crucial to the success of the venture, they must be accepted by the Authority, and the more experienced they are the smoother the process will be, this is particularly important where the accountable manager or major shareholders are not from an aviation background. Being a post holder in a start-up is not a position for a newly appointed individual, it is a case of experience counts!

The final chapter, if you are not put off to-date will look at all those little things that need to be done and that cost more than expected, as always enjoy and your feedback is welcome.