EASA: Regulatory Framework for Autonomous GSE

Recently, the European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) received numerous demands from various stakeholders in the aviation industry, with the core focus being on establishing a dedicated regulatory framework for autonomous ground support equipment (GSE). However, Julia Egerer, the head of EASA's airport safety department, clearly stated that the agency prefers to promote the establishment of this regulatory system at the international level.

Egerer disclosed in an interview with the "Airside" magazine: "We have held multiple discussions with airport, aviation management agency and other industry participants regarding autonomous equipment. From a regulatory perspective, we believe the best path is to promote the standardization process of this technology under the framework of the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO)."

She hinted that the core of this position is to achieve global standard uniformity. This view was fully supported by industry professional Gamba: "I fully agree with EASA's proposition. If the EU formulates a regulatory framework independently while the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and other global aviation regulatory agencies operate separately, it will ultimately lead to regulatory fragmentation, which is meaningless."

"I firmly oppose regional or national regulatory models. Such models will cause chaos - especially for ground support service providers operating globally." Gamba further added: "If led by ICAO to formulate regulatory rules, operators will be able to rely on this top-down unified standard to obtain clear guidance."

Egerer emphasized that building an autonomous equipment regulatory system from a global perspective can also help industry stakeholders make more precise technological investments. "Industry participants urgently need standardized norms because a unified framework can enable them to clearly predict the technical direction and ensure that related investments have practical value," she explained.

The airline community also pays close attention to this issue. "Airlines are also actively following the progress, for example, Lufthansa Group has already contacted me and they have specifically established an operational working group for autonomous ground support equipment," Egerer disclosed. "However, airlines generally worry that if there is no unified global standard, various technical solutions may emerge in different regions. At that time, their standard operating procedures (SOP) will have to frequently adapt to the rules and technologies of different regions, which is extremely detrimental to their global operations."

Furthermore, Egerer pointed out that another important reason why airlines support a global unified regulatory framework is to achieve the standardization of training systems for all operational sites globally. "A unified regulatory framework can make the training content standardized, ensuring that staff at different regional sites can receive consistent professional training, which is crucial for ensuring operational safety."