Ken Cannane, Executive Director of the Aviation Maintenance Repair and Overhaul Business Association (AMROBA) believes that effective regulation can lead to jobs growth in the aviation sector.
Cannane said in a communique this week that aviation safety regulation is largely responsible for the shortage of trained people and the lack of jobs growth within the aviation industry.
"The shortage of pilots and LAMEs has been primarily caused by aviation regulatory changes over the last three decades," said. "It is easy to create legislation based on idyllic concepts that have created pilot and LAME shortages.
"If we are to take government seriously when they say they support the creation of jobs, especially in micro/small businesses, then the language of the CASRs and associated MOS should provide an economic infrastructure that would encourage businesses to start-up and employ staff.
"Based on my own experience, it is a challenge to draft safety regulations that also encourage employment in a safe, economically-viable environment.
"It is a challenge, but it can be done."
AMROBA believes that when drafting regulations, CASA needs to take into account to potential impact on the problems currently facing the aviation community, including whether the regulation will:
- help with the pilot shortage
- keep LAMEs in the non-airline sector longer
- address the lack of apprentices
- bring down the average age of engineers
- address inappropriate vocational training
- boost private and training flying hours
- arrest declining employment opportunities
- reduce red tape
- remove barriers to business.
According to Cannane, the aviation authority used to strongly support small businesses when it considered regulation, and he believes that small operations should not be subject to regulation drafted with large charter companies or airlines in mind.
"For jobs to be created, safety regulations need to include appropriate regulations and standards for different managements of micro, small, medium and large businesses," he said.
"These businesses are responsible for the safety culture that has matured in Australia over the last 100 years."
Cannane traces the problem back to the Civil Aviation Regulations (CAR) written in 1988 and the Civil Aviation Authority established the year before.
"Regulatory barriers imposed since the beginning of the Civil Aviation Regulations have reduced the number of micro/small businesses that are essential for the creation of jobs.
"The more micro businesses that exist, the more small and medium businesses that will be created."
AMROBA and Cannane have long been advocates of regulations that enable flying instructors and LAMEs to operate independent of larger companies and flying schools, believing it will help spread aviation back into the regions where flight training has ceased and aero clubs folded due to the weight of regulation.
Read the full communique on the AMROBA website.