The public authority has agreed with the recommendation of NCE RK "Atameken" on introducing IOSA audit requirement standards to the Kazakhstani legislation

All stakeholders, who interested in the introduction of a mandatory requirement of IOSA audit requirements for all airlines in Kazakhstan, have met on the site of the National Chamber of Entrepreneurs of Kazakhstan "Atameken". After a two-hour discussion, the participants of the meeting came to the consensus. The discussion was attended by representatives of government agencies, major players in the domestic scheduled air transport, as well as the representative of the International Air Transport Association (IATA).

"We will introduce the requirements of IOSA audit in the national legislation. The law "On the use of airspace" and by-laws will reflect the reinforced safety requirements and regulations", - said the chairman of the Civil Aviation Committee of the Ministry of Investment and Development of RK Beken Seidakhmetov.

The transition period for airlines will be 1 year from the date of the adoption of changes to the law into line with newly introduced standards, certification (updated IOSA auditing requirements).

According to Seydakhmetov 404 airlines in the world undergo IOSA audit – that is 95% of the airlines worldwide. "These 95% account for 40% of accidents, the remaining 5%, which did not pass the audit, 60% of accidents. That is, the accident rate of air carriers, which have undergone IOSA audit in 2013, is 2.5 times lower”, - he stressed.

The head of the CAC added that IOSA will not substitute state regulation that exists in the country, but it will rather complement it. " 14 countries worldwide have introduced mandatory requirements for passing the IOSA audit: Brazil, Bahrain, Chile, Egypt, Madagascar, Mexico, Costa Rica, Panama, Syria, Turkey, Lebanon and the Gulf states", - he said.

"We raise the question, if the introduction of IOSA standards is so important for Kazakhstan, let's introduce them into our legislation. If it costs (...) 50 thousand USD or 5 million USD - it should be prescribed by the law", - said the chairman of the airline “Bek Air” Nurlan Zhumasultanov.

He added that it would be nice to make IOSA requirements advisory for airlines that carry out domestic flights.

Airline companies Air Astana, SCAT and Qazaq Air stick to the opinion about the necessity of compliance to IOSA audit requirements for Kazakhstani airline companies.

A representative of the Committee on Regulation of Natural Monopolies and Protection of Competition of the Ministry of national economy of Kazakhstan Mira Tuyakbaeva, in turn, noted that in 2013 the antitrust authority concluded that this provision will lead to a restriction of competition, but, nevertheless, the rules were introduced. "This requirement is applicable for the larger airlines. Considering the fact that for low-budget regional companies, which carry out domestic flights at a lower cost, the passage of the audit creates certain difficulties, we believe that, if these companies will leave the market, this would lead to monopolization of the market and increase of the cost of tariffs", - she said.

"These 60 thousand dollars do not affect the rates in any case. There are internal costs of the company, which should prepare to receive the certificate", - said the chairman of the subcommittee of the Civil Aviation of the Committee of logistics and transportation NCE RK Bulat Naurzaliev.

"Now we have to come to the consensus. We need to understand how much time we need to perform this task. What resources, what internal changes need to be conducted in the company in order to improve its effectiveness. I think that in this case the regulator is willing to compromise. I support a dialogue and proposal on introduction of some kind of a transitional period", - said the Deputy Chairman of NCE RK Rustam Zhursunov.

Previously, we reported that upon the submission of the draft order "On approval of the rules of admission of the airlines to perform regular domestic commercial flights" to NCE RK by the Committee of Civil Aviation in March 2015, NCE presented the conclusion that the introduction of the IOSA audit requirement requires the update of national rules in the field of civil aviation or in the form of aviation standards in accordance with Article 7 of the Law of RK "On the use of airspace of Kazakhstan". However, the recommendations of the National Chamber were not taken into account by the public agency. Then in August 2015 NCE sent a letter to Civil Aviation Committee of MID RK with a request to justify the reasons for disagreement with the observations set out in the expert opinion of the Chamber. In response, NCE RK "Atameken" received a formal reply. The National Chamber didn’t stop at that, and on 16^th of November 2015 it sent a letter to the main transport prosecutor's office of Kazakhstan with the request to check the legality of the establishment of the qualification requirements of the IOSA certificate. The response from the main transport prosecutor's office came on December 18, 2015. The state agency's position stated that the establishment of international aviation standards in the field of civil aviation, engaged in domestic regular services, doesn’t contradict to the national law.

Thus, a consistent work of NCE RK led to the eventual settlement of the above situation, taking into account the views of all participants of the meeting: the Subcommittee on Civil Aviation of the Committee of the logistics and transportation and the Presidium of NCE RK "Atameken".