Shanghai, 28 April 2017: The Executive Director of the European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA), Mr Patrick Ky and the Vice Administrator of the Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC), Mr Li Jian opened on 27 April 2017 the joined Safety Conference organized by the two organizations, bringing together leading CEOs from the European and Chinese aviation industry. The conference marks a new high in aviation ties between Europe and China. These have steadily grown closer over recent years.
In the presence of CAAC Administrator Feng Zhenglin and the European Commission Director General for Mobility and Transport Mr Henrik Hololei, leading members of the aviation community discussed progress on establishing a future Bilateral Air Safety Agreement (BASA). More uniform standards, agreed through the BASA, will make it easier for companies to sell their aviation products in China and Europe, while maintaining the high safety record that both regions benefit from.
Trends defining the future of aviation safety were discussed in the different panels of the conference taking place in Shanghai. Topics included implementing efficient safety management systems for maintenance, new technologies and developments in the field of aircraft navigation systems and efforts to promote the use of rotorcraft more widely in China for essential emergency medical services for example.
Successful joint cooperation initiatives include the bi-annual airworthiness management meeting, a newly established flight standards dialogue between CAAC and EASA that took place for the first time in the same week of the conference and the EU-China Aviation Partnership Project that supports the ongoing dialogues between the authorities and industry with concrete technical cooperation activities.
The conference brought all these efforts together by signing a joint declaration to promote international aviation safety, a letter of intent supporting the implementation of the EU-China Aviation Partnership Project for its second year and the memorandum of cooperation for the newly established flight standards dialogue.
