ASD Announces EU-Asia Civil Aviation Co-operation Project Harmonisation Efforts

January 15, 2007 // Published as a news service by IHS

The harmonization goal will be carried through the setup of a South Asia and South East Asia Regional Initiative Forum.

According to ASD, the forum will serve as a dialogue platform to enable both industry and the regulatory authorities to discuss regulatory matters on a regional level.

At a meeting in Bangkok, the South East Asian Project Partners concluded the project with a final meeting for those Asian and European organisations involved in the training of safety pilot instructors.

In the last three months of the project, 60 pilots were working with European trainers to update, develop and absorb the latest training techniques used in Europe. This co-operation is based on the train-the-trainers concept, which means that the training will be cascaded to others in the region.

The training involved the use of flight simulators to reinforce theoretical training. During the four years of the project, more than 5,000 civil aviation experts from 15 South and South East Asian countries in other aspects of aviation safety, security and management were trained.

The ASD co-operation strategy "is to build on Asia's solid expertise and growing operations to promote greater efficiency, sustainability, safety and security in the region," said Patrick de Prévaux, ASD programmes managing director. "The region can benefit from the joint support of EU and the European aerospace industry," he said.

Based on the feedback, as well as demands from the Asian project partners, the European aerospace industry launched a "Bridging Aviation Project" under the ASD umbrella. The bridging project will run for one year and guarantees the continuity of the existing network of experts established under the EU-Asia Civil Aviation Project, ASD said.

Source: AeroSpace and Defence Industries Association of Europe (ASD).