The CEO and Director-General of International Air Transport Association (IATA) Alexandre de Juniac has called for single certification of aircraft to be followed worldwide.

“The real point is to restore mutual trust among regulators and a complete alignment to ensure that the single certification system works properly as it has done for the past 70 or 80 years. That is the key priority,” the IATA DG said at a conference call. He said single certification means that if (say the) (US) Federal Aviation Authority or any other agency certifies a plane, then other countries follow and certify the plane.

The issue has come into prominence due to the global grounding of the Boeing 737 MAX aircraft in March. After two crashes of this variety of aircraft in Indonesia and Ethiopia the aircraft was grounded globally by various aviation regulators starting with the Chinese regulators. Incidentally the US was among the last to ground the aircraft.

Interestingly, the Indian aviation regulator has made it clear that “it will take a conservative view” on allowing the Boeing MAX aircraft to fly again. Sources in the Directorate-General of Civil Aviation had said that it will not be among the first few countries to allow this variety of aircraft to fly again.

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