Aviation Leadership

The Accountable Manager

Mark J. Pierotti

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2021
• eBook ISBN: 9781000504491
• Topic: Technology & Engineering
• Subtopic: Business General
• Index: Technology & Engineering

This book identifies the responsibilities of management in the regulatory territories of the FAA (USA), the EASA (European Union) and the GCAA (UAE), identifying the daily challenges of leadership in ensuring their company is meeting the regulatory obligations of compliance, safety and security that will satisfy the regulator while also meeting the fiducial responsibilities of running an economically viable and efficient lean company that will satisfy the shareholders.

Detailing each responsibility of the Accountable Manager, the author breaks them down to understandable and achievable elements where methods, systems and techniques can be applied to ensure the role holder is knowledgeable of accountabilities and is confident that they are not only compliant with the civil aviation regulations but also running an efficient and effective operation. This includes the defining of an Accountable Manager "tool kit" as well as possible software "dashboards" that focus the Accountable Manager on the important analytics, such as the information and data available, as well as making the maximum use of their expert post holder team.

This book will be of interest to leadership of all aviation- related companies, such as airlines, charter operators, private and executive operators, flying schools, aircraft and component maintenance facilities, aircraft manufacturers, engine manufacturers, component manufacturers, regulators, legal companies, leasing companies, banks and finance houses, departments of transport, etc; any relevant organisation regulated and licensed by civil aviation authority. It can also be used by students within a wide range of aviation courses at colleges, universities and training academies.

1An introduction to civil aviation, the regulations and air law

DOI: 10.4324/9781003094685-2

It is important that an established or a new or a soon to be Accountable Manager understands the existence and the development of civil aviation standards and the reasoning behind the regulations that they, as the Accountable Manager, are accountable for.

In this section of the book we shall examine the approach that the political world took to ensure a supported, safe and secure civil aviation industry is established. This includes the formulation and the establishment of internationally accepted procedures and standards for civil aviation operations and aircraft airworthiness specifications. Also, this section of the book shall review the organisation and treaties established to support this standardisation. After this chapter, the Accountable Manager shall have a very detailed understanding of why and how civil aviation is regulated today.

The Chicago Convention and the International Civil Aviation Organization

World War II was coming to an end. As a result of the conflicts in Europe and the Pacific and the need for faster and better aircraft, great advances were made in aeronautics over the five years of the war. Aeronautical science was better understood by aviation scientists. New metals and materials were developed by metallurgists, new aircraft designs were developed by aeronautical engineers and new, more capable engines were developed by mechanical power plant engineers.

Prior to the war, and even more so after the war, entrepreneurs and businessmen saw the aviation industry as a fast developing, potentially very profitable, new industry that would enable businesses to go not only intercity or international but also intercontinental. The pre-war achievements of KLM and Imperial Airways in Europe, Pan American Airways and American Airways in the USA and Aeroflot in Russia, all proved the concept that air transport services could be a profitable and sustainable growth business. Aircraft proved to greatly satisfy the need for freight and cargo to be transported fast and far. The movement of people from city to city and country to country was made much more efficient by the larger, longer-range aircraft. At the end of the war, the aeronautics companies that were focused on developing and building war machines could now get back to the business of developing and building civil aircraft for the new growing civil aviation industry. The scientists and the engineers that were forced to focus their skills on the war effort could now redeploy to the great civil aviation companies that existed prior to the war. The returning aircraft mechanics and pilots from the theatres of Europe and the Pacific were ready to apply their trade in civilian life.

It was 1 November 1944 where the Convention on International Civil Aviation took place at the Stevens Hotel in Chicago, Illinois, USA, later to be known as the Chicago Conference or Chicago Convention. The US Government took the initiative and invited 55 representatives (53 states and two representatives of territories) to come to the US for this post-war convention on international civil aviation. Fifty-two international states were present, including the USA, interested in establishing civil aviation standards for international operations.

On 7 December, the document was signed by all 52 attending states plus the USA hosting state (The Chicago Conference, 1944). On 5 March 1947, the signed Articles of the Convention were ratified by the 26th state; this was the trigger to place the treaty into effect and, hence on 4 April that year, the treaty was validated and put into effect. As a record of the Convention, the host country’s Department of State drafted the “Final Act”, a document including the “Proceedings of the International Civil Aviation Conference”, a written account of all the meetings, the working groups, the agreements and the treaties that were deliberated on and the “Articles” (The Chicago Conference, 1944), the legal items that each state signed contracting to adhere to. These documents became a very important record for the Conference. That same year in October, as a result of the International Civil Aviation Conference, the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) was formed and became a part of the United Nations as a specialised agency of the United Nations Economic and Social Council. Dr Albert Jean François Roper, a decorated French aviator and dedicated civil aviation advocate, was nominated as the first Secretary-General. In the beginning, Dr Roper was the director general (DG) of the Provisional International Civil Aviation Organization (PICAO) prior to the final ratification by the 26th state of the Chicago Convention, then, subsequently, he became Secretary-General of ICAO on 27 May 1947. Dr. Roper was invited by the Canadian Government to assist it in preparing for the launch meeting of the PICAO to be convened in Canada, Montreal on 15 August 1945. Montreal then became the headquarters for ICAO, along with all the other UN departments.

ICAO was essentially established to define standards for civil aviation. A standard, as defined by the first ICAO Assembly, is:

… any specification for physical characteristics, configuration, material, performance, personnel, or procedures, the uniform application of which is recognized as necessary for the safety or regularity of international air navigation and to which member states will conform.

Standards may thus include specifications for such matters as the length of runways, the materials to be used in aircraft construction and the qualifications to be required of a pilot flying an international route. A recommendation is any such specification, the uniform application of which is recognised as desirable in the interest of safety, regularity, or efficiency of international air navigation and to which member states will endeavour to conform.

(The Chicago Conference, 1944)

The Convention identified 96 Articles that were documented as “principles and arrangements” and signed upon by all the present states. The objectives of these Articles were to develop international civil aviation in a safe and orderly manner, to quote the Convention:

… the undersigned governments having agreed on certain principles and arrangements in order that international civil aviation may be developed in a safe and orderly manner and that international air transport services may be established on the basis of equality of opportunity and operated soundly and Economical.

(The Chicago Conference, 1944)

The Articles, Annexes and Standards and Recommended Procedures of the Chicago Convention

It is important that an Accountable Manager understands the origins and intentions of civil aviation regulations and is aware of the Annexes and Standards and Recommended Procedures (SARPs) (International Civil Aviation Organisation, 2021).

There were two main documents that were developed as a record of the Chicago Convention: first, the “Proceedings of the International Civil Aviation Conference” (The Chicago Conference, 1944), which detailed and recorded the minutes of all meetings, working committees, and sub-committees that took place. The second was th...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half-Title Page
• Series Page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Dedication
• Contents
• List of figures
• List of tables
• About the author
• Acknowledgements
• Introduction
• 1 An introduction to civil aviation, the regulations and air law
• 2 An introduction to the Accountable Manager
• 3 Leadership of the Post Holders
• 4 Organisational structures in a civil aviation company
• 5 Ethical leadership and the Accountable Manager
• 6 A tool kit and SOPs for the Accountable Manager
• 7 How to select an effective Accountable Manager
• 8 Female Accountable Managers and the added challenges
• 9 A lawyer’s review of the Accountable Manager’s responsibilities
• 10 Case studies of Accountable Manager challenges
• Summary
• Glossary
• Index