European Aviation Safety Agency awards Ukraine International Airlines TCO certificate

The European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) has awarded Ukraine International Airlines (UIA) a third-country (non EU) operator’s certificate (TCO), which allows commercial air transport (CAT) operations into, within or out of any of the following territories:
• the 28 Member States of the European Union
• the 4 EFTA States (Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway and Switzerland)
• the following territories in which Regulation (EC) No 216/2008 , the so called “Basic Regulation” applies: Gibraltar, Åland Islands, Azores, Madeira, Canary Islands, Guadeloupe, French Guiana, Martinique, Réunion, Saint-Martin, Mayotte
In 2008, the European Parliament and the European Council tasked EASA with establishing a single European system for vetting the safety performance of foreign air carriers, and the TCO system came into operation on May 26th 2014 as part of a move to centralize the commercial air safety process.
According to the EASA “The European approach to the authorisation of third country operators will essentially consist of a validation of the Air Operator Certificate (AOC) issued to a foreign air operator by its State’s competent aviation authority. EASA will validate the foreign AOC by issuing an EASA TCO Authorisation document accompanied by Technical Specifications, setting out the scope of operations authorised in the EU. The issuance of an authorisation will be subject to EASA’s level of confidence in the foreign AOC, as determined by the competence of its holder to discharge its responsibilities and the safety oversight capability of the certifying State. Assessment criteria are ICAO Standards applicable to air operators.”
According to a statement issued by the airline, UIA operations and safety management systems fully comply with both IATA and EASA requirements and regulations.