The International Business Aviation Council (IBAC) and the French Directorate for Civil Aviation Safety (DSAC) have signed a Memorandum of Cooperation to initiate the formal exchange of safety-related information. This agreement aims to further improve business aviation safety through the early identification and communication of safety hazards and emerging trends. In parallel, it aims at improving the planning and performance of ramp checks under the EU Ramp Inspection Programme.

The framework for the test phase is now formally established, and DSAC and IBAC are currently defining the practicalities of the exchange of information. On the one hand, IBAC will provide limited information about business aircraft operators that have been successfully audited and subsequently registered under the International Standard for Business Aircraft Operations (IS-BAO). This will be complemented with fleet and aircraft registration data voluntarily provided by many of those operators. On the other, DSAC will provide IBAC with aggregated and anonymised data gathered during their most recent ramp inspections of business aviation operators, providing important continuous-improvement feedback to the group of participating operators.

The test phase is expected to be conducted in 2021 and 2022. The joint DSAC-IBAC evaluation of its results will determine whether the tools and methods tested can be expanded to make valuable contributions to both aviation safety and the Ramp Inspection Programme managed by EASA.

“A number of IS-BAO registered operators have already volunteered for the project, and we are looking for more participants,” says Daniel Devraignes, IBAC audit manager, acting IS-BAO program director. “This is a significant step forward to gathering and sharing important valuable safety data and is a first of its kind for our industry. We look forward to a successful test phase that will advance the performance of ramp checks in France and hopefully throughout other parts of the world for our business aviation operators.”

IS-BAO operators that are interested in participating in this project may do so through the IBAC portal with their operator log-in credentials.