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Op 25 april organiseerde de Military and Civil Aviation Association in samenwerking met Flieger Law Office de seminar: AVIATION BACK TO BUSINESS - public or private Volgende sprekers waren hier aanwezig: Gen. A. Van Daele, former Chief of Staff, Chairman MCAA Roderick Van Dam, former Legal Counsel Eurocontrol / Chairman IFPA Prof. P. Honnebier, Amsterdam Prof L. Pierralini, Rome Arthur Flieger, Antwerpen – Sao Paulo
Arthur Flieger over het ongeval met MH17 op ATV
Journaliste Veronique Goossens van Kanaal Z interviewde Arthur Flieger, al 30 jaar actief in de sector. "De kleine handelaren verdwijnen en zeker nu de Antwerpse diamantbank de deuren sluit."
We are looking forward to welcoming you at our booth! Invitation to Farnborough International Airshow 2014, from July 14th to 20th. Farnborough Airshow is a world-famous biennial event which attracts crowds in excess of 250,000. The week-long event combines a major trade exhibition for the aerospace and defence industries with a public airshow, plus a static exhibition of aircraft. Flieger Law Office, the only law firm present at FIA 2014, cordially invites you to visit its booth and to discuss your projects and needs with our senior legal experts, Arthur Flieger and Stijn Brusseleers. Being aviation law experts they will be happy to give you legal guidance for your projects. We are looking forward to meeting you there! Flieger Law Office Farnborough Airshow 2014 Hall 1, booth A14
In some instances, the FAA has attempted to regulate UAVs by relying on existing regulations that are stretched and distorted. For instance, it uses regulations governing experimental aircraft and the flight crews of experimental aircraft to justify the current permitting system, which is consistent with Dorr’s acknowledgment that the FAA uses regulations governing manned aircraft to regulate UAVs. Of course the whole point of an unmanned aerial vehicle is that there is no flight crew, but no one seems to have pointed that out to the FAA. In fact, one could argue that it’s voluntary to listen to the FAA about drones. In its literature discussing its governance of UAVs, the FAA often refers to Advisory Circular 91-57, which addresses model airplanes. However, AC 91-57 merely “outlines, and encourages voluntary compliance with” the model airplane standards it states (so I guess paper airplane–slinging third-graders are safe). I think “voluntary” is probably a more honest representation of FAA authority over UAVs as well, absent congressional approval or at least publicly vetted regulations. Similarly, there is reason to think that if you keep your beer-delivery drone flying low, you’ll be in the clear. In its documentation addressing a redesign of the national ...
MEPs and member state negotiators reached a deal last night (4 March) to change the rules of the European Union's Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) that will essentially exempt non-EU airlines from having to pay for their CO2 emissions. The change was demanded by third countries such as Russia, China and the United States. The ETS legislation, adopted in 2008, has covered all emissions from flights landing or taking off from an EU airport since 1 January 2012. But third countries objected to the inclusion of emissions that did not take place in EU airspace, saying it was a breach of sovereignty. The European Commission temporarily exempted flights leaving or entering EU airspace in 2012, in order to give the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) time to agree a global mechanism to control aviation emissions. In September ICAO adopted a timeline to agree a future mechanism in 2016, and the Commission decided this was enough to propose an amendment to the legislation to exempt emissions outside EU airspace until then. However the third countries demanded that the EU go further, exempting all emissions from flights entering or leaving the EU – even those emissions that took place within EU airspace. National EU governments have been leaned ...
The long and contentious conflict over the application of the European Union's Emissions Trading Scheme to foreign carriers appears to be nearing an end as Members of the European Parliament reached an agreement with negotiators from the various Member States to essentially exempt non-EU carriers from any obligation to participate in Europe's cap-and-trade program. Carriers based in EU Member States will still be required to comply. The application of Directive 101/2008 to non-EU airlines has been criticized for its extraterritorial effects since its passage six years ago. Under pressure from Member States fearful of repercussions from trade partners, the EU temporarily suspended its application to non-EU carriers last year, and the European Commission and Parliament had both recently backed a measure to restrict foreign carriers’ obligations to only those pertaining to emissions occurring in EU airspace – thereby addressing the primary legal argument opposing States had put forward. Despite the Parliament's acquiescence to their purported concerns, non-EU countries, perhaps emboldened by their success, continued to press for complete exemption for their carriers which they now appear to have won. March, 6, 2014
Government will negotiate with the US to ensure that institutions like credit unions, pension funds, government entities and international institutions that present a low risk of US tax evasion are exempt from the provisions of FATCA under a special annex to the IGA Barbados is moving steadily towards an Inter-Governmental Agreement (IGA) with the United States to give effect to the Foreign Account Compliance Act (FATCA). 03 February 2014 Minister of Industry Donville Inniss, Bank Secretary of the Central Bank Elson Gaskin and Commissioner of Inland Revenue, Sabina Walcott- Denny at a press conference highlighted the logistics of the initiative. According to Gaskin, the timeline that the negotiation team has set for actually getting the IGA into place is April 30, 2014, while the deadline for signing is June 30. It was noted that Barbados will have at least until September 30, 2015 to ensure that all matters needed to operationalise FATCA, including the passage of legislation are in place. The Bank secretary explained, "The threshold for bank accounts is USD 100 000 on an aggregate basis. On the July 1, 2014 you will be subject to FATCA reporting. Or if you have an insurance contract with a Cash Surrender Value ...
13 February 2014 OECD has unveiled a new single global standard for the automatic exchange of information between tax authorities worldwide. Developed by the OECD together with G20 countries, the standard calls on jurisdictions to obtain information from their financial institutions and exchange that information automatically with other jurisdictions on an annual basis. It sets out the financial account information to be exchanged, the financial institutions that need to report, the different types of accounts and taxpayers covered, as well as common due diligence procedures to be followed by financial institutions. The OECD is expected to deliver a detailed Commentary on the new standard, as well as technical solutions to implement the actual information exchanges, during a meeting of G20 finance ministers in September 2014. www.oecd.org
The general assembly of the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) this week will debate proposals for a global market-based mechanism (MBM) to control the increase in carbon-dioxide emissions from air transport. As an interim measure aimed at reaching consensus, negotiators for the 28-state European Union (EU) have offered to alter its existing emissions trading scheme (ETS) so that it would apply only to flying activity within EU airspace and not to all stages of intercontinental flights. Delegates to the 38th triennial ICAO assembly, which begins on September 24 and runs through October 4, plan to begin discussing draft resolution A37-19 on September 26 and conduct a final vote on October 2. The proposals call for ratification of the envisioned MBM by the 39th assembly in 2016 and full implementation in 2020. In the meantime, the EU-ETS would remain in force, although with a more limited scope. On September 18, lobbying groups the Environmental Defense Fund, the World Wildlife Fund and Transport & Environment called for ICAO to bring forward ratification of the new plan to 2015 and implement it in 2016. Although all sides of the sometimes fractious debate seem ready to compromise to avoid a trade war that threats of retaliatory ...
The airline industry’s attention will turn to Montreal later this month, where European environmental regulators and a host of skeptical nations — including the United States — will square off at the United Nations civil aviation arm’s triennial meeting over how to control jet aircraft emissions. At issue is whether the International Civil Aviation Organization can negotiate a deal that would effectively cap the aviation industry’s emissions worldwide and supersede European Union rules that many foreign airlines say are too expensive and impractical. Some critics of the play say it exceeds the union’s jurisdiction. Congress first got involved in the issue last year, when both chambers passed legislation by Sen. John Thune, R-S.D., barring U.S. airlines from participating in the EU’s emissions trading scheme. President Barack Obama signed the bill into law (PL 112-200) shortly after Thanksgiving. The EU’s top climate official said in November that the emissions trading system would not be enforced before the ICAO meeting this year. Connie Hedegaard, the EU’s climate action commissioner, said the cap-and-trade system proposed for airlines would probably be tucked away if the ICAO can work out a way to curb emissions at the same level the EU’s law is expected to. But European officials ...
Air passengers’ rights must be tightened up to stop airlines abusing an “extraordinary circumstances” clause to avoid paying them compensation for delays or denied boarding, said MEPs in Monday’s Transport Committee debate on a European Commission proposal to recast the rules. Rapporteur Georges Bach (EPP, LU) suggested that passengers should be entitled to €300 compensation after just 3 hours’ delay on intra-European-flights. MEPs also debated the need to give customers accurate information when booking, as well as in the airport, and on standard claim procedures. “Today only 2% of passengers who are entitled to compensation actually claim it. They just back out, for fear of high legal costs”, Mr Bach said. He also pinpointed unfair additional costs added to tickets, whether at the time of reservation or for cabin luggage and called for a ban on the airlines’ “no-show” policy of denying a passenger the right to board a return flight if he has not used the outbound part of his ticket. The Bach report will be put to a Transport Committee vote on 14 November. TRAN Press release – Transport − 16-09-2013
Seeking to end years of acrimony, the European Union has made concessions to the United States to try to gain support for global rules on airline emissions. Under the arrangement, the European Union would pare back its regulations, applying them only to its own airspace. The original plan, which the United States and other countries rejected, would have imposed charges for emissions over an airline’s entire route if the flight began or ended in Europe. In exchange, Europe is pushing for a global deal on aviation emissions. The European concessions — proposed quietly over the summer and made public this week — aim to end a trans-Atlantic dispute over a European law to curb emissions on major international routes. In doing so, the European Union is looking to present a united front with the Americans and press the rest of the world to adopt similar or more extensive controls. “This is a multilateral negotiation where you give and take,” Isaac Valero-Ladrón, a spokesman for the European Commission, said in a statement. “We should not miss the bigger picture: a global deal means more emissions covered in the long term.” The European law, which came into force on Jan. 1, 2012, covers emissions from most flights ...
The EU agreed to a deal late Wednesday to scale back its law regulating carbon from flights as U.N. negotiators pledged to craft a global pact on aviation emissions that would not take effect for seven years. EU officials agreed at U.N. talks in Montreal to only include emissions from flights over European airspace in the bloc's Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS), said the EU's top climate official Jos Delbeke, a move that would scale down a law that covers all flights to and from Europe. The deal, which still needs to be signed off by a full meeting of the U.N.'s aviation body ICAO ending Oct. 4 and by EU lawmakers, drew fire from green groups and sparked a renewed threat of legal action by European airlines. "There are bits and pieces of that text that make everybody unhappy. So it's maybe not too far away from an ideal compromise," said Delbeke at an event at the EU Parliament in Brussels. The deal falls short of the worldwide pact the EU had hoped for in November 2012 when it exempted foreign flights for one year to give ICAO more time to strike a global deal and avert The agreement will force airlines to surrender more ...
Talks at the U.N.'s aviation body must bridge a deep divide between developed and emerging nations over airline emissions to avert the threat of a carbon trade war with the European Union. After more than a decade of debate at the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), there is little sign emerging powers China and India are ready to pay to pollute. Failure to get a deal would open the way for the European Union to resume international implementation of its own law that makes all aviation using EU airports buy carbon allowances. The last time it tried to enforce the law over frustration at a lack of ICAO progress, the EU faced counter-measures and the suspension of Chinese orders for Airbus jets. Some orders are still frozen. In response to claims it was breaching sovereignty, the EU suspended the law, but said it would re-impose it unless the ICAO found an alternative. With time running short before the EU has to decide what to do, the ICAO will hold a preliminary meeting on September 4. That in theory will finalize the ground work for an outline global deal at the triennial general assembly beginning on September 24 at the ICAO headquarters in Montreal. But still ...
A bill awaiting congressional approval is reviving the ghosts of Sept. 11. Commercial airlines would be required to install a secondary barrier to protect the cockpit under legislation introduced by Rep. Michael G. Fitzpatrick (R-Pa.) and supported by Ellen Saracini, the widow of Victor Saracini, one of the pilots killed in the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks. After the deadly attacks, the Federal Aviation Administration required commercial airlines to install one locking door between the cabin and the cockpit. The new bill suggests that planes are momentarily vulnerable when a pilot unlocks the door to use the restroom in the main cabin. Fitzpatrick's bill was referred to a congressional subcommittee in April, with no hearing date scheduled. The debate over the barriers has grown heated, with federal law enforcement groups supporting the bill and the airline industry criticizing it for costing millions of dollars. "We believe individual carriers should be able to make the determination," said Jean Medina, a spokeswoman for Airlines for America, the trade group for the country's airlines. After the Sept. 11 attacks, Congress set aside $100 million to help air carriers pay the estimated $12,000 to $17,000 cost of installing each cockpit door. Fitzpatrick's bill does not offer government funding for the ...
European rules on flight delays and cancellations could actually threaten passenger welfare, according to a leading aviation body. The Board of Airline Representatives in the UK (BAR UK) has lambasted legislation aimed at protecting passenger rights, saying it promotes a “compensation culture” that will ultimately lead to higher fares – and may place passengers in peril. The organisation’s chief executive, Dale Keller, said: “Consumers feel they do not need travel insurance, since they hear that the airlines will pay out should anything go wrong. This is leaving more consumers exposed to other risks, including medical.” He told The Independent: “The evidence comes from airline customer-care departments dealing with consumer claims”. Such passengers are routinely asked by staff if they hold insurance, and the airlines indicate that more people are travelling uninsured because of the perception that all risks are covered when a plane ticket is bought. The latest survey of UK holidaymakers reveals that almost one-quarter travel without travel insurance – a figure that rises to nearly half in the case of 18-24 year olds. One in four travellers believes, wrongly, they will be repatriated free of charge if they fall ill. Malcolm Tarling of the Association of British Insurers said: “We always advise ...
Airline passengers have the right to receive compensation if their flight departure is advanced by more than 45 minutes, leaving them scrambling to make new plans, Canada's transport regulator has ruled in a case involving Air Transat. "Advancements may impact as negatively on those passengers as is the case with passengers whose flight is delayed," the Canadian Transportation Agency said in a decision released Thursday. It said passengers should be eligible to receive a refund or alternative flight if they can't accommodate an airline's decision to push up its departure times. Passenger rights advocate pushes case The agency ruled in favour of passenger rights advocate Gabor Lukacs, who has previously challenged the practices of several airlines. It determined that Air Transat's existing rules were not "reasonable or balanced." Lukacs welcomed the decision, even if it only helps very few passengers. "Airlines cannot walk away from liability if they caused delays or if they substantially altered the service they've promised to provide when you buy the ticket," he said in an interview from Halifax. He said the ruling will provide passengers more protection for commercial decisions airlines make that can be devastating for travellers who cannot alter their work or other commitments to catch earlier flights. Lukacs said he ...
The UAE represented by the General Civil Aviation Authority (GCAA) has signed a record of discussion with the Government of the People’s Republic of China in Yinchuan, Ningxia on August 15, 2013. The new agreement was signed by the Head of the UAE delegation Saif Mohammad Al Suwaidi, Director General of the GCAA and the Head of the Chinese Delegation Han Jun, Director General of the International Affairs Department of the Civil Aviation Administration of China. Representatives from Abu Dhabi Department of Transport, Dubai Civil Aviation Authority, Sharjah Department of Civil Aviation, Etihad Airways, Emirates Airline, Air Arabia, and flydubai attended the signing ceremony. Saif Mohammad Al Suwaidi stressed the importance of this agreement, which will contribute to further boost the trade, investment and tourism between UAE and China. Adding that UAE and China enjoy a prosper trade and investment ties, with UAE exports to China exceeding Dh1 billion and imports reaching Dh54 billion in 2012. The two delegations agreed to increase passenger and combination services frequencies for operations to Urumqi, Xining, Kashgar, Yinchuan and Zhengzhou in order to keep up with the growth of air traffic between the two countries. Also, the Chinese side agreed unlimited frequencies with third, fourth and fifth freedom traffic ...
