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The Director-General of Civil Aviation, Mr Norman Lo, signed a cooperation arrangement on mutual acceptance of approval of aircraft maintenance organisations between the General Administration of Civil Aviation of China (CAAC), Macao Civil Aviation Authority (AACM) and Hong Kong Civil Aviation Department (CAD) in Beijing today (June 2).
This cooperation arrangement is an expansion of a previous one signed in May 2002 (that covers only aircraft component maintenance) and the new arrangement includes entire aircraft maintenance.
The cooperation arrangement allows the maintenance organisations in Hong Kong, once recognised under the arrangement, to maintain aircraft registered in Mainland China and Macao without seeking additional approval from the CAAC and AACM respectively. Likewise, maintenance organisations in Mainland China and Macao may maintain aircraft registered in Hong Kong without additional approval from the CAD. The airline industry will also benefit from the arrangement as they can have more choices on their maintenance contractors. Through this arrangement, the reduction in duplication of approval and oversight activities maximises the utilisation of resources of both the regulators and the industry.
The CAD has entered into similar arrangements with Singapore and Canada and is in active discussions with the regulators in other countries to establish similar arrangements.
Ends/Friday, June 2, 2006
Issued at HKT 14:02
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