president`s opening speech

press_release_aei_congress_2006.doc

The Congress agenda contained several interesting and important items covering; Flight Safety, Technical matters, Human Factors, Reports from different committees, financial matters and new member application amongst other things.
AEI had invited guest speakers and a number of interesting work shops were held.

During Secretary General’s report, items like how to react during industrial actions came up. How to support Affiliates during strike, what is allowed, what is requested, how about cross border support? And the importance with links to media, information and publicity. The affiliates wanted to be able to post issues internationally via AEI. Due to politics the affiliates are sometimes banned from contacting national media, but AEI can use its contacts for international support.

From AEI Secretary Asia/Pacific we learned that the year 2005-2006 has been dominated by Airlines in the Asia Pacific region considering outsourcing their heavy maintenance. Air
New Zealand and QANTAS have both considered this idea, and have both considered using foreign MRO’s for this work. However due to Union pressure and initiatives by the Unions this has been averted, albeit to the detriment of the LAME. In the increasing challenge for Airline Management to reduce costs, the option of outsourcing maintenance to “cheap
maintenance providers” is a concern from both a safety and quality aspect.

Invited guest speaker, Mr. Banal, Standard and Safety Director of EASA made a very interesting and educational presentation to the Congress. Mr. Banal also informed the affiliates present that AEI is doing a good job representing aircraft engineers within EASA when discussing maintenance regulations. He also felt a good relation meeting representatives of AEI in their functions. EASA has 3 directorates of
which reflect the EU function regarding regulations, rulemaking and monitoring. The commission has delegated these to the EASA Agency.
The presentation was followed by a wide and informative discussion amongst Mr. Banal and the AEI affiliates covering Part 66 license, Part 147 schools training and examination, EASA relationship with FAA, Human Factors training and unsafe aircraft flying into Europe.