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Guernsey Airport's air traffic control tower has become the first ever to complete its EASA certification in under a year.
It is also only the second outside of the EU to achieve the status.
The Air Navigation Services and Air Traffic Controller Training Organisation Certification is issued by the European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA).
The status will now sit alongside established regulatory oversight of Guernsey Airport by other Competent Authorities.
"Our team have worked very hard in the last ten months to deliver this highly ambitious project which we have been advised normally takes around two years to achieve," Ross Coppolo, Guernsey Ports' Project Lead and Head of Safety and Compliance, said.
"The transition means the Air Navigation Services provided by Guernsey Airport continues to comply with relevant European Union (EU) Regulations. It is a testament to the professionalism of all staff involved in this project to ensure ongoing compliance with EU legislation. All stakeholders and customers should continue to have full confidence in the new regime that Guernsey Airport is now using for the safe movement of aircraft.”
Guernsey Airport.
Manager of Air Traffic Control at Guernsey Airport, Leah Jeffreys added: “Achieving EASA certification is a significant step for the long term sustainability of the Bailiwick’s air navigation services. Our Air Traffic Control Unit have worked extremely hard to get this ambitious project completed on top of their normal ‘business as usual’ activities.Changing from the UK CAA to EASA oversight presents new challenges that my team have fully embraced and tenaciously delivered in a short space of time for a project of this scale and complexity.”
Guernsey moved to get this EU standard in place because Ports of Jersey on behalf of the French Authorities, operates the Channel Island Control Zone (CICZ), which is a piece of airspace block within the Brest flight information region. As the services are provided in French Airspace, both Jersey, and now Guernsey, have had to transition to EASA oversight who are the designated Competent Authority for such service provisions.
The certification means all of the air navigation from Guernsey is now fully regulated by EASA.
Guernsey Airport.
Dominic Lazarus, the Channel Islands Director of Civil Aviation, said: "Obtaining certification is a remarkable achievement and the project team at Guernsey Airport should be very proud of getting this EASA status. To achieve this level of accreditation in under a year is impressive.
"The project team at Guernsey Airport should be very proud of themselves, especially in the Airport’s eightieth birthday year. Airport customers and the public should not dismiss this milestone. This new EASA certification will now underpin how these important services for Bailiwick aviation are inspected, and developed in the years to come.”
As part of this process, Guernsey Airport took the opportunity to obtain ISO 9001:2015 accreditation, which has been independently certificated by British Standards International (BSI). That entailed a series of rigorous audits to determine Guernsey Airport’s Quality Management System for its Air Navigation Services fully complies with the requirements of the international ISO 9001 quality management system standard.
Pictured top: Guernsey's Air Traffic Control tower (image from Guernsey Airport).
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