M.A.201(ea) Responsibilities – One CAMO for single air carrier business grouping

HARMONISATION OF THE MANAGEMENT SYSTEMS

(a)The harmonised management systems of the organisations that conclude a contract should encompass safety by including the following elements:

(1)A forum to share the results and conclusions of the safety review boards (SRBs) of each organisation, which should be attended by the accountable managers, safety managers, and any other relevant nominated person(s). That forum may for example take the form of regular joint meetings of the organisations’ SRBs.

(2)Regular exchange between the organisations of the results and conclusions of the compliance monitoring function as well as of the results of the oversight of each organisation by the CA(s). The exchange of information on compliance monitoring and oversight provides for awareness, analysis, and hazard identification.

(3)A common or consistent safety policy and its related safety objectives.

Note: establishing common or consistent safety objectives does not prevent the organisation(s) from defining additional and/or specific safety objectives to adapt to the local environment/specificities/operations and/or to the organisation safety performance, as applicable.

(4)Common or consistent safety management key processes (see AMC1 CAMO.A.200(a)(3) ‘Management system’) that are established by the CAMO and its contracting operators unless those processes relate to activities or procedures that are specific to one of those organisations (e.g. fatigue risk management system (FRMS)).

(5)A cooperation mechanism to ensure prompt reaction when one of the organisations shares some serious concerns with another organisation.

(6)A cooperation mechanism to ensure proper actions are coordinated at group level if there are findings at one organisation, which affect the harmonisation of the management systems.

(7)A cooperation mechanism with the operator(s) to manage the changes in the harmonised elements of the management systems in such a way that those changes produce their effect at the same time.

(b)The CAMO/operator(s)’ procedures should describe how the interface and harmonisation between the management systems are achieved, and specify the records to be retained in respect of the harmonisation of the management systems.

To ensure that all parties involved can fulfil their responsibilities, all manuals, procedures, and communication between them should be, at least, in one common language, e.g. English, when the CAMO manages the continuing airworthiness of aircraft registered in (a) different Member State(s) than its principal place of business. Parties involved include the competent authority(ies) with which that common language should be agreed upon.

HARMONISATION OF THE MANAGEMENT SYSTEMS — GROUP STANDARDS AND CHANGES THERETO

(a)Depending on the size of the single air carrier business grouping and on the nature and complexity of its activities, an efficient way of harmonising the management systems of the organisations is by collectively developing group standards that are endorsed by a group management board or similar group governance body. Such group standards may include provisions for the monitoring of the obligations of the parties that have signed the contract established in accordance with Appendix I to Annex I (Part-M) to Regulation (EU) No 1321/2014.

(b)The group management board or similar group governance body is composed of the accountable managers of the organisations and a coordinating member. The names of the board members are included directly, or by reference to a common document, in the contract, and are updated in the respective document in case of change in personnel.

(c)The coordinating member may be one of the accountable managers or another person. As a consequence of applying point M.A.201(ea) is that several operators will use the same CAMO, the group management board may consider having as coordinating member one employee of that CAMO. The role of the coordinating member includes, but is not limited to the following:

ensuring that all perspectives are considered;

defining the by-laws of the board and ensuring they are complied with;

coordinating decision-making;

ensuring that the documentation is updated;

ensuring the review of the group standards;

ensuring the regular exchange of communication and that meetings take place; and coordinating the integration of an organisation into, or, if applicable, its departure from, the business grouping.

(d)The group standards can be documented either:

in a common document that is cross-referenced in the continuing airworthiness management contract that is required by point M.A.201(ea); or in the exposition/manual of each organisation, in which case the continuing airworthiness management contract that is required by point M.A.201(ea) should cross-reference the relevant part of the organisations’ expositions/manuals; or in the continuing airworthiness management contract that is required by point M.A.201(ea).

(e)In particular, the group standards include:

methods and procedures to address the safety management key processes;

identification of the different operators and the CAMO;

identification and contact details of the members of the group management board or of the similar group governance body; and management of the changes that affect the group standards, e.g. consultation process.

AIR CARRIER BUSINESS GROUPING

(a)In the framework of Regulation (EU) No 1321/2014, ‘a single air carrier business grouping’ means a controlling undertaking and its controlled undertakings. All those undertakings are located in the territory to which the Treaties apply.

The controlling undertaking exercises directly or indirectly a dominant influence over the controlled undertaking by virtue of ownership, financial participation, right to appoint management or a supervisory body, the rules that govern it, or other.

The controlled and controlling undertakings include air carriers licensed in accordance with Regulation (EC) 1008/2008 as well as one or more organisations that are approved in accordance with Annex Vc (Part-CAMO) to Regulation (EU) No 1321/2014.

In the frame of Community-scale groups of undertakings, Article 3 of Directive 2009/38/EC provides additional information about controlling undertakings, which can also be suitable to national-scale groups of undertakings.

(b)Each approved organisation is responsible for its management system, even if they follow common group standards, policies, or procedures. The accountability of each approved organisation, as defined by the relevant EU regulation, is not affected by being part of a single air carrier business grouping. The air carrier remains ultimately responsible for the continuing airworthiness of the aircraft it operates even if the operator decides to contract the continuing airworthiness management to a CAMO. In that case, the operator is no longer responsible for performing the continuing airworthiness tasks, as that responsibility is transferred to the contracted CAMO. The operator keeps the responsibility to fulfil the requirements in the EU regulations, e.g. to assess the CAMO to ensure that it has the capability and capacity to comply with the contract (see Part-M, Appendix I, point 7).

CONFIGURATIONS

(a)Each AOC holder of a single air carrier business grouping may choose either to remain an approved CAMO itself (in accordance with point M.A.201(e)(2)) or to contract a CAMO (in accordance with point M.A.201(ea)).

(b)The following schemes illustrate possible examples of configurations:

(c)The following schemes illustrate examples of configurations that are not compliant with point M.A.201(ea) (non exhaustive list):