Angel Flight has welcomed the decision by the Civil Aviation Safety Authority not to impose tighter regulation on community service flights.
Chief Executive Marjorie Pagani told Australian Flying that the decision made last Friday gave the organisation a more certain future.
"After a long and stressful period, particularly for needy passengers and volunteers, the uncertainty is over," she said. "Earlier this month I had a meeting with incoming CASA Director of Aviation Safety Mark Skidmore about the delay in the decision-making process, and the detrimental effect it was having on the charity.
"We maintained our position that it was inappropriate for Angel Flight to take over the responsibilities of the regulator, and that there was no need for the rules governing private flights to be changed merely because the flight was conducted by a volunteer."
Pagani commended the speedy resolution of this issue, saying that Angel Flight would continue to rely wholly on CASA to ensure pilots were properly trained, tested, and reviewed.
"We have confidence in the present suite of regulations, and that CASA will continue to properly administer them. CASA had never made out a safety case for the proposed changes, and we can't foresee any changes to that occurring.
"We are confident that this will be the end of any proposal for the regulator to shift responsibility for compliance from CASA to the charity."