ICAO praises Azerbaijan’s aviation safety

From 1 to 8 June this year, the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) conducted another large-scale audit of ICAO Coordinated Validation Mission (ICVM) for compliance with international safety standards of civil aviation in the Republic of Azerbaijan under the Universal Safety Oversight Audit Programme (USOAP).

During the audit, compliance with international safety standards and the organization of state control was consistently verified in eight critical elements. These elements include legislation, organizational structure, flight operations control, aircraft airworthiness control, air navigation standards control, aerodrome operator control, certificate issuance, and air accident investigation.

According to the preliminary report of the Validation Committee dated 26 September 2022, an audit by HQ, which lasted over three months, the effective implementation of the flight safety management system in the Republic of Azerbaijan and compliance with ICAO standards were set at 80 per cent.

This figure is five per cent above the global and European average set by ICAO by 2025 and is considered a very good achievement. At the same time, this figure is well above the compliance rate of 66 per cent determined by the last audit conducted in Azerbaijan in 2018.

Due to the positive results of the audit, ICAO sent a letter to the Ministry of Digital Development and Transport (MDDT) and congratulated the Government of Azerbaijan and the State Civil Aviation Agency under the MDDT for the success achieved. The letter also expressed willingness to discuss directions of activities for further enhancing the control capacity of the agency.