In addition to airworthiness certification, basas, MoUs and WAs offer bilateral cooperation in other areas of aviation, including maintenance, air operations and environmental certification. Kevin Shum, Managing Director of CAAS, said: “CAAS and UKCAA have a long-standing close relationship. These new agreements reinforce our shared commitment to promoting aviation safety, strengthening the development of civil aviation and supporting our industries. The TA-M will benefit some 70 aviation maintenance agencies in Singapore and the United Kingdom. The EU has also negotiated horizontal agreements with 17 other non-ECAA countries. The horizontal agreements (including the EU-US Open Skies Agreement and the EU-Canada Air Agreement) cover areas such as airline access rights, passenger rights and investment. Bilateral agreements facilitate mutual airworthiness certification of civilian aviation products imported and exported between two signatory states. A bilateral airworthiness agreement (BAA) or a bilateral aviation security agreement (BASA) establishing airworthiness implementation procedures (IAP) provide for technical aviation cooperation between the FAA and its civil aviation authorities. As noted in the presentation, UK regulators are working with partners in the United States, Canada and Brazil to update bilateral aviation safety agreements to avoid disruption to the industry if the UK does not join EASA after Brexit. Britain is also preparing Brexit laws, including adopting current EASA rules and recognising EASA authorisations and certificates. However, carriers in the United Kingdom, in particular, still face considerable uncertainty. UPDATE: On March 26, Transport Canada and the United Kingdom Civil Aviation Authority signed the English version of the “Hard Brexit Scenario” for the labour agreement.

The agreements have been published on the UK CAA website and can be found here by clicking here. For more information: www.caa.co.uk/Commercial-industry/Aircraft/Airworthiness/Organisation-and-maintenance-programme-approvals/Bilateral-agreements/What-is-a-bilateral-agreement/ Currently, the security regime between the two countries is being implemented within the framework between the United States and the EU. Although the UK government and the CAA have always stated that their common preference is to continue to participate in the European Aviation Safety Agency (EEA) system even after the UK`s withdrawal from the EU, this would not be possible in a non-agreement scenario. These agreements are part of the overall emergency measures taken by the CAA for such a scenario and involve the continuation of effective and equivalent regulation if the UK is no longer part of the EESA system. Andrew Haines, Director General of the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA), the UK Aviation Supervisory Authority, has proposed that the UK should be able to negotiate individually with EuCAA member states in the absence of an agreement with the EU as a whole. This could allow the UK to circumvent certain EU rules and even court jurisprudence. The issue of Gibraltar could also be circumvented if no agreement is reached with Spain. However, it is not certain that this is compatible with EU law. Moreover, it would be very complex and tedious to conclude agreements that all offer nine freedoms. In addition, eu-speaking agreements with third countries would no longer apply if the UK is not a member of the ECAA. The United Kingdom has already renegotiated its own bilateral agreement with the United States, Albania, Georgia, Iceland, Israel, Kosovo, Montenegro, Morocco and Switzerland, while negotiations with Canada are at an advanced stage.

However, horizontal agreements do not offer the same level of freedom as within the ECAA. Thus, the agreement between the United States and the European UNION gives the eighth and ninth freedom to EU airlines. The Singapore Civil Aviation Authority (CAAS) and the UK Civil Aviation Authority (UKCAA) have signed two cooperation agreements to further strengthen their bilateral partnership.