Commercial flight carriers that experience a major accident will not be allocated aviation rights for three years following a recent amendment to the Regulations Governing the Allocation of International Air Traffic Rights and Charter Flights, the Civil Aeronautics Administration (CAA) said yesterday.
The amendment was proposed after TransAsia Airways had two plane crashes in less than seven months, the first in July last year and the second in February.
Each carrier is to be evaluated in relation to policy and technical soundness when it comes to allocating aviation rights. In terms of policy, the government is to examine whether the carrier has been complying with the government’s regulations, as well as other factors, which is to account for 60 percent of the evaluation.
Photo: Liao Chen-huei, Taipei Times
On the technical side, the government is to evaluate the carrier’s flight safety record, operational plan and financial soundness, accounting for 40 percent of the assessment. Flight safety records are to account for 50 percent of the scores on the technical side. The regulations further ban carriers that have had plane crashes from being allocated any aviation rights within a year of the accident.
Many legislators said that the evaluation for aviation rights allocation does not give sufficient weight to an airline’s safety records and suggested a harsher punishment be given to carriers with poor aviation safety records.
CAA Director-General Lin Tyh-ming (林志明) said that the agency would tighten its supervision over the airlines, but added that a similar change has to happen on the policy side.
Lin said the change would be reviewed by the Ministry of Transportation and Communications, adding that the new regulations could be implemented next month.
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