The Baltic Air Charter Association (BACA) and the UK Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) held their first joint seminar on 3rd July at the CAA’s headquarters in London. The subject of the seminar was Foreign Carrier Permits and Illegal Charters. This helped attract an audience of more than 40 operators and brokers that took a keen interest in the presentations. The joint seminar is the start of the process that will see much closer cooperation between BACA and the CAA.

Delegates were treated to a series of presentations explaining the requirements by the CAA on operating and chartering aircraft. These included clarification on what illegal charters are and how common they are. It was made clear to the audience that if they have any suspicions or knowledge of illegal charters their best course of action is to report details to the CAA and BACA.  Both BACA and the CAA take the matter of illegal charters very seriously and believe that this initiative will assist all Authorities in minimising the incidence of these illegal operations.  Operating such flights is a criminal offence and the CAA takes verification and enforcement extremely seriously.

BACA Chairman Tony Coe commented “I am extremely pleased at the level of interest for this first joint BACA/CAA event and have been very impressed at the presentations we have seen today. Similarly, the questions from the audience have been very constructive and illustrate the need and desire of our members to reduce illegal charters. Certainly from the numbers of delegates attending it is apparent that these are subjects they also take very seriously and I expect we may revisit this in more detail in the months ahead.  I think this first joint event has been a great step in joint cooperation between member companies and official bodies and we look forward to holding more of these in the future.”

David Kendrick whose Airline Licensing Team administers Foreign Carrier Permits at the CAA said “We were very pleased to have the opportunity to highlight an important area for the CAA and to work with BACA members in helping to address the issue of illegal charters.  We would encourage anyone that does have information in relation to possible illegal operations to share that with us as that helps strengthen and give confidence to the system as a whole.  It was very successful event and we look forward to working with BACA on similar initiatives in the future.  Anyone who has such information or would like advice on whether a permit is required and how to obtain one should write to us at foreigncarrierpermits@caa.co.uk  ”