The European Joint Aviation Authorities (JAA)

JAA was organized in 1970 as a group of civil aviation authorities from separate European states, formed to cooperate in producing “Joint Airworthiness Requirements” (JARs) for cer­tification of aircraft and other products jointly produced in Europe and to facilitate the export and import of such products between European States. Beginning in 1989, JAA as an organiza­tion was cohesively associated as a body with ECAC and was charged with taking care of the regulatory activities in aviation safety under the oversight of ECAC. The ECAC itself concen­trates on policy issues, security, and the environ­ment as they relate to civil aviation.

JAA’s primary function was to ensure that JAA Member States achieved a consistent level of aviation safety through the cooperation of its members. There has been a transition of these activities from JAA to the permanent European Union agency responsible for all civil aviation safety known as the European Aviation Safety

Agency (EASA). EASA became operational in 2003 and is now responsible for rule-making, certification, and standardization of rules to be applied by the national aviation authorities.

JAA developed and adopted JARs in the areas of aircraft design and manufacture, aircraft operations and maintenance, and the licensing of aviation personnel. It also developed administra­tive and technical procedures for the implemen­tation of JARs once they were adopted. Since 1996, for instance, JAA had the responsibility of running the Safety Assessment for Foreign Air­craft (SAFA) program for ECAC. While ICAO has undertaken the overall role of developing and implementing safety standards worldwide, SAFA is an ECAC program that complements ICAO based on a “bottom up” approach. Under this program, JAA conducted ramp inspections of air­craft throughout its Member States utilizing Stan­dards of ICAO Annexes 1 (Personnel Licensing), 2 (Operations of Aircraft), and 3 (Airworthiness of Aircraft).

Beginning in 2000, JAA had developed a fully operational database, completely comput­erized, which is the repository for all reports completed as a result of the ramp inspections Europe-wide. In 2001, 25 states performed 2,706 inspections, up from 75 inspections in 1996. JAA action taken as a result of these inspections ranged from simple discussions with aircraft commanders concerning minor items to ground­ing of the aircraft until corrective action is taken for serious violations. Notification of the respon­sible Civil Aviation Authority of the aircraft’s home country usually followed the notation of a violation. In repeated or egregious cases, entry permits of the aircraft operator were revoked.

JAA has sought to maintain a high level of cooperation and coordination with the FAA in the United States and, more recently, with the appropriate safety regulatory authorities of Russia and other former communist countries that joined the JAA, as well as with Canada, Japan, Australia, and others. With respect to the FAA, JAA sought to harmonize the relationship between FARs and JARs as they relate, particu­larly, to:

1. Design and manufacture, operation, and maintenance of civil aircraft and related products and parts

2. Noise and emissions from aircraft and air­craft engines

3. Flight crew licensing

JAA was widely regarded as the European equivalent of the FAA, and, in many respects, that is an accurate comparison.5 The JAA was criti­cized by the United States, however, as having a protectionist agenda, that is, it adopted regulations for the express purpose of promoting European aviation to the detriment of competitors from outside of the EU, particularly the United States. In June 1997, for instance, the JAA attempted to adopt rules that would have required flight training for European pilots to be conducted at flight schools that are 51 percent owned by Euro­peans. Although this requirement was dropped after objection by United States interests, the new regulation still severely restricts flight training at facilities outside of the EU countries, and makes it difficult to convert a license issued by the FAA into one acceptable under the JAA regulation. This regulation was justified by the JAA on the basis of safety, although even a cursory analysis of the rationale will disclose that basis to be a sham. It is a unilateral trade restriction designed to promote European flight schools to the detri­ment of similar schools located in the United States.

As to the function of JAA coordinating with foreign safety regulatory authorities, like the FAA, on the certification of products and services, JAA made the process of securing its approval of U. S. manufactured products very difficult. Approval by JAA was a requirement before any such American product could be exported to Europe. The approval was designed to be a validation of FAA or other certification, not a new and complete recertification regimen imposed by the JAA. Allegations were lodged that JAA abused this validation process to delay or prevent sales of U. S. aviation products in Europe. One example cited is the difficulty the Gulfstream V has had in securing JAA approval for sale in Europe, difficulty that resulted in years of delay and the expenditure of millions of dollars. Another example is the Cessna X, which required in excess of four years and the expen­diture of $3 million to secure JAA approval. In order for a new aircraft type manufactured in the United States, and certified by the FAA, to be approved for export to Europe, JAA review required as much as an additional 52 percent of the time it took the FAA to certify the new type in the first place. This compares with 15 to 17 percent of the time the FAA takes to certify for­eign aircraft for sale in the United States.6

These European practices may create trade issues that transcend anything previously expe­rienced in world aviation commerce, and may have ramifications that affect the overall global aviation market. At a minimum, these practices violate the spirit of international trade agree­ments and impair the promise of the global mar­ketplace. These practices by the EU, termed “Regulatory Nationalism,” are receiving increas­ing scrutiny by United States government authorities.7

On January 1, 2007, the JAA entered an official “transition” phase designed to mark the absorption of JAA functions into EASA. Combining the offices of JAA with EASA in Cologne, Germany, began on March 1, 2007. The JAA system was disbanded effective June 30,2009.