Following the closure earlier this year of the successful first phase of the EU-China Aviation Partnership Project (APP), EASA and CAAC came together on 8 July to formally kick off the second phase. The objective of the APP is to enhance the partnership between the EU and China in the domain of Civil Aviation.

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Joined by participants from the European Commission, the European Union Delegation to China, Air Traffic Management Bureau (ATMB), International Cooperation and Service Center of CAAC (ICSCC) and EUROCONTROL, the two aviation authorities expressed their strong commitment to continue mutually beneficial cooperation under the framework of the APP.

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The meeting started with opening remarks by Miss Liang Nan, Director General of the CAAC International Affairs Department, Mr Peter Sørensen, Deputy Head of the European Commission Directorate General for Mobility & Transport’s Aviation Safety Unit and Mr Luc Tytgat, EASA Strategy and Safety Management Director. Reviewing the past five and a half years of project implementation, achievements that were highlighted ranged from progress made on specific topics within domains of aerodromes & ATM, flight standards and air operations, airworthiness, accident-incident investigation, sustainable aviation, through a series of concrete workshops, to organisation of air- and groundspace optimisation projects and high-level aviation safety conferences. Both CAAC and EASA representatives stated to be highly satisfied with the results of the APP, underscoring their eagerness to launch a second phase.

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The new APP will run for three years and has already started with the collection of inputs from EASA and CAAC departments as well as industry stakeholders. A preliminary list of cooperation topics was presented at the meeting, in the objective of either increasing focus on areas or topics initially covered in the first APP, or exploring new ones such as in the domain of new technologies. Those will be developed during the inception phase of the project in the coming months.

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Given the many identified areas of interest, at this meeting both EASA and CAAC expressed their high expectations for a successful continuation of their partnership through the APP, supporting the civil aviation sector development in the EU and China.