The Baltic Air Charter Association (BACA) and the UK Civil Aviation Authority held their first joint seminar last month at the CAA's headquarters in London. The subject of the seminar was foreign carrier permits and illegal charters. The session attracted an audience of more than 40 operators and brokers and is the start of a close cooperation between the two organisations. Delegates were presented with the requirements from the CAA on operating and chartering aircraft, which included clarification on what illegal charters are and how common they are. Operating such flights is a criminal offence and the CAA takes verification and enforcement seriously. BACA chairman Tony Coe comments: "I am extremely pleased at the level of interest for this first joint BACA/CAA event and have been very impressed at the presentations we have seen. Similarly, the questions from the audience have been very constructive and illustrate the need and desire of our members to reduce illegal charters. Certainly from the numbers of delegates attending it is apparent that these are subjects they also take very seriously and I expect we may revisit this in more detail in the months ahead."

David Kendrick, whose airline licensing team administers foreign carrier permits at the CAA, adds: "We would encourage anyone that does have information in relation to possible illegal operations to share that with us as that helps strengthen and give confidence to the system as a whole."