EASA and SAAU launch new airworthiness convergence project

The European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) has collaborated with the State Aviation Administration of Ukraine (SAAU) to introduce a new airworthiness convergence project in the country.

To be managed by EASA, the three-year project has been designed to promote the implementation of EU airworthiness rules in Ukraine.

It will also help prepare the country to participate in various EASA activities and reinforce the SAAU’s structural capacity for airworthiness oversight.

EASA strategy and safety management director Luc Tytgat said: “EASA supports SAAU’s endeavours to transition towards EU-based requirements and standards in the area of airworthiness.

“The EASA-SAAU Airworthiness Convergence project will further enhance the partnership and cooperation between the EU and Ukraine in aviation.”

The launch of the project follows an arrangement signed between the European Commission and SAAU on the convergence of certification systems in the field of airworthiness in January.

To support this arrangement, the newly launched project will focus on the development and implementation of a ‘Convergence document’, as well as technical cooperation activities in the areas of initial and continuing airworthiness.

SAAU chairman Alexandr Bilchuk said: “This support from the EASA side constitutes the significant factor for the development of competencies and capacities of the State Aviation Administration of Ukraine in the field of airworthiness, especially in the framework of the implementation of the EU standards in the aviation domain.

“We are very grateful to the European colleagues for the proposed intensive plan of work and we plan to finalise the Convergence document by the end of the 3^rd quarter of 2017.”

Ukraine is considered as a priority country for EASA in terms of the European Neighbourhood Policy (ENP).

---

Image: Launch of new airworthiness convergence project in Ukraine. Photo: courtesy of EASA.