The Civil Aviation Authority of Macao SAR (AACM) has been participating in regional cooperation with other countries or places for the purpose of sharing resources. Among the cooperation projects with the aeronautical authorities of mainland China and Hong Kong was the Cooperation Arrangement of Mutual Acceptance of Approval of Aircraft Maintenance Organizations (AMO) signed in 2002. The three parties have then worked in close cooperation. On 28 and 29 January, the three parties held the yearly Joint Maintenance Management (JMM) Steering Committee Meeting and discussed two focused issues on the mutual acceptance of aircraft maintenance training organizations and aircraft maintenance licensing. The Steering Committee Meeting was held in AACM’s office. The three aeronautical authorities reviewed the progress of the AMO cooperation project as well as exchanged information on the difficulties encountered in practice and discussed the policy for amending the Joint Maintenance Procedures in order to carry out the relative work more effectively. In addition, the three aeronautical authorities have started the planning for the mutual acceptance of approval of aircraft maintenance training organizations between mainland China, Hong Kong and Macao since 2008. A series of discussions have been held to compare the regulations between the three places; Visits to the aeronautical authorities to observe their oversight work as well as to the maintenance training organizations to check their operations have also been conducted between the three parties to each other. The three parties have now finished the drafting of the cooperation arrangement, which is expected to be signed in 2010. The three parties also held preliminary discussions on the mutual acceptance of aircraft maintenance licensing. On this issue, the standards and the procedures for license category, examination syllabus, question bank and so on must be harmonized between mainland China, Hong Kong and Macao before conditions for mutual acceptance can be fulfilled. But given the fact that there is a discrepancy between the practice of aircraft maintenance licensing in the three places, the aeronautical authorities will therefore need a longer time for studies. On the basis of the present mutual acceptance cooperation, the three aeronautical authorities agree to aim for harmonized airworthiness standards and procedures between the three places to be the direction for future cooperation. The objectives of mainland China, Hong Kong and Macao in having mutual acceptance cooperation were to reduce the economic burden resulting from the duplication of inspections and testing on the industry and to enhance cooperation and increased efficiency in matters relating to civil aviation safety. The three parties established JMM following the signing of the mutual acceptance cooperation arrangement in 2002 with members from the airworthiness disciplines from the three places. The JMM meets every year to discuss the progress review of the cooperation projects in place as well as any other new projects. The JMM Steering Committee Meeting is chaired by the three aeronautical authorities in turn. AACM has been the chairman since 2006. The meeting in these two days saw the handover of chairmanship for 2010 to the Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC). In addition to holding the JMM Steering Committee Meeting in the week, AACM conducted a pre-audit in preparation for Macao’s participation in the Universal Security Audit Programme (USAP) which will take place this year. Following the Universal Safety Oversight Audit Programme which is conducted by the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) to its 190 member States which Macao participated in 2009, the USAP is another big audit programme that Macao is committed to. With the coordination between CAAC and ICAO, Macao will take part in the USAP in June. A working group has been set up by AACM which has already initiated all sorts of preparation. To evaluate the preparedness of the present state, AACM invited the Programme Coordinator of the ICAO Technical Cooperation Group, Mr. Graham A Lockwood to visit Macao from 27 to 29 January for conducting a pre-audit to the Macao aviation security systems to look for possible findings. On the three-day pre-audit, Mr. Graham A Lockwood followed the USAP documentation to review the Macao Civil Aviation Security Programme, the Security Training Programme, the Quality Control and Facilitation Programme, as well as the security crisis management arrangement. In addition, Mr. Lockwood reviewed the Macau International Airport Security Programme and visited the airport to check the passenger, baggage and cargo screening and access control procedures. Mr. Lockwood has already presented the pre-audit findings to AACM. AACM will analyse those findings and adopt appropriate measures for improvement, ensuring that the security systems further comply with ICAO Standards and Recommended Practices by the time the audit will take place.
