The Regional Aviation Association of Australia (RAAA) has called on the government to renew its efforts in reforming the CASA and to take positive action to harmonise Australia’s aviation safety regulations with the rest of the world.
The call comes in in the wake of last week's damning CASA customer satisfaction survey and the subsequent resignation of CASA CEO Mark Skidmore.
"With the announcement yesterday of the resignation of CASA’s Director of Aviation Safety, Mark Skidmore AM, the RAAA sees it as essential that the CASA Board moves as quickly as possible to appoint an appropriately qualified successor to carry out the necessary reforms within CASA," the RAAA said in a statement released on Friday.
"The RAAA called for a new deal for Australia’s aviation industry in light of the poor results of an independent stakeholder relationship survey conducted on the Civil Aviation Safety Authority (CASA)."
RAAA Chairman Jim Davis, commenting on the survey results, said that action was needed to prevent the recommendations of the Aviation Safety Regulation Review (ASRR) from falling by the wayside.
“It is obvious that CASA needs to pick up its game," Davis said. "It is now over 18 months since the ASRR report was adopted by the government but CASA has a long way to go in achieving its objectives.
“The Government now needs to take action to ensure that the ASRR report’s recommendations are effectively implemented and haven’t been turned into just another bureaucratic box ticking exercise."
The RAAA statement urged the government to review the progress of reforms stemming from the ASRR and to "direct CASA to harmonise Australia’s aviation safety regulations with overseas jurisdictions by removing the current red tape and unfair restrictions to competition suffered by Australian industry."
The full RAAA statement can be read on the link below.