A group of seven leading General Aviation associations has banded together to develop a rescue plan for the ailing industry. Steve Hitchen reports.
The Aerial Agricultural Association of Australia (AAAA), Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association (AOPA), Aircraft Maintenance Repair and Overhaul Business Association (AMROBA), Australian Business Aircraft Association (ABAA), Overnight Airfreight Operators Association (OAOA), Royal Federation of Aero Clubs Australia (RFACA), and Regional Aviation Association of Australia (RAAA) have released a 10-point plan they believe is crucial to creating a vibrant GA sector in Australia.
The plan, released on August 9, also asks the question, “is GA dying or being killed?” and points to a lack of government engagement and heavy-handed regulation as culprits in the sector’s demise. It also outlines the benefits of GA to Australia and calls the government to action on several levels.
In doing so, the plan’s authors have not held back, slamming the recent government Aviation White Paper, saying, “While governments are willing to assist in funding a range of other infrastructure identified as critical to the ‘national interest’, General Aviation is left to fend for itself.
“The contribution made to the Australian economy by GA was embarrassingly underestimated in the government’s White Paper, where it claimed the sector only employed some 3000 people. In fact, GA employs many times that number.
“The fact that even the government does not know the size of the sector or the contribution it makes speaks volumes for the current approach to GA policy.”
The 10-point plan is:
1. Government must engage better with industry by establishing a Ministerial forum with leading industry associations.
2. Aviation is vital infrastructure and should be given a higher policy and funding priority, both through tax reform and government programs.
3. The aviation skills shortage should be addressed through the introduction of HECS for pilots and engineers.
4. Government must consider increased support for local GA airports that are struggling to keep up with increasing costs of maintenance and compliance, and threats from developers.
5. The security requirements for GA aircraft and pilots should be simplified to be in line with US practice.
6. CASA’s Act must be changed to include fostering and promoting aviation.
7. CASA should be directed to establish a high level joint task force to work with industry on improving efficiency and effectiveness and reducing cost.
8. CASA should be directed by Government to substantially simplify and reduce its regulatory burden on GA, especially in the areas of drug and alcohol management plans, reporting, AOC/entry control, and through regulatory reform.
9. CASA should be directed by Government to work cooperatively with industry associations to develop recognised Codes of Practice that will support aviation safety while reducing compliance costs, in line with ICAO recommended practice.
10. CASA should be directed to abandon its current European-based approach to regulatory reform for GA, especially maintenance regulation, and adopt a model based on the US FAA system of simple regulations for simple operations.
AMROBA President Ken Cannane, one of the signatories to the plan, said aircraft utilisation in Australia is very low, averaging about 25-30 hours per aircraft per year.
“In the US that is more like 100 hours,” Cannane said. “The lack of hours being flown is putting stress on GA companies and airports. The decline is largely in flying hours even though aircraft registration numbers are up! We need to find out why people aren’t flying and do something about it. If we don’t, the industry will stagnate.
“The face of General Aviation has always been the flying instructor domiciled at aerodromes around this country – where are they today? AMROBA, AOPA and some others are researching this issue with the hope we can better market our industry.”
In many ways, the paper only echoes the cries made by various industry sectors for several years, but goes one step further in proposing solutions, even if some of them are a bit ambitious. It calls for several government reforms including a return to an aviation ministry and a complete overhaul of CASA and the way it operates.
“CASA remains the consistent ‘problem child’ of aviation safety regulation in Australia, and urgent Ministerial attention is required to set CASA on a track of supporting GA rather than killing it,” the report claims.
“The Civil Aviation Act should be amended to include the goal of fostering and promoting aviation in Australia, as the US FAA has included in its charter.
“CASA should be directed to abandon its current European-based approach to regulatory reform for GA, especially maintenance regulation, and adopt a model based on the US FAA system of simple regulations for simple operations.”
But as Cannane points out, not all the signatories to the plan agree with everything in it.
“A group of us put some thoughts on paper and emailed it around to the others. We got a general agreement that these were issues that needed to be sorted out, but no one association agrees with all of the items in the plan.
“For example, AMROBA doesn’t have an issue with CASA. We have worked very closely with them on regulation development. Our only concern there is that regulatory reform has taken far too long to complete and everyone is uncertain about what’s going to happen, so it’s very hard to plan for the future.”
Because the plan was released in the lead-up to the August Federal election, CASA elected not to comment on the criticism leveled at them when contacted by Australian Flying, with their spokesperson saying, “that’s a matter for the politicians.”
Among the solutions offered in the paper are:
• Accelerated tax depreciation of 60 per cent in the first year for commercial aircraft.
• A reversal of the recent increase in fuel excise.
• Government ownership of airports that have suffered under the ALOP scheme, or tied funding to local councils.
• HECS for trainee engineers and commercial pilots.
• Abandonment of the mandatory third-party property insurance scheme.
• Reduced security requirements to match those in the US.
• Simpler regulations distinguishing between passenger-carrying, aerial work and private operations.
• Drug and alcohol testing for passenger-carrying ops only.
Initiatives like these would require policy changes at government level, but it was the lack of transparent policy that prompted the rescue plan in the first place, which does not breed much optimism within AMROBA.
“Neither the Labor Party nor the Liberal Party mentioned anything about aviation at the beginning of their election campaigns,” Cannane said. “The Labor Party could say ‘we did the White Paper’, but that was never a reflection of where the GA industry is at or where it needs to be. I’ve been in this game for 50 years and I realistically don’t expect the government to react to this in any meaningful way. But, it does make it clear to the department exactly what we think.”
In the last two days of the campaign, the Liberal Party did release a light-weight policy on aviation, most of which was directed at commercial and regional operations, prompting one signatory, the RAAA, to praise the policy.
When asked to respond, Minister Albanese again pointed to the White Paper as an expression of the government’s aviation policy.
Regardless, the group of associations had plans at the time of release to follow-up their manifesto and propose workable solutions to some of the identified problems.