Air Operations
Air OPS (CAR-OPS) and the Air Operator Certificate; operator responsibility for continuing airworthiness; documents carried on board; the MEL/MMEL relationship and the Configuration Deviation List.
Air operations — summary notes
Free- Air Operations are governed by (EU) 965/2012 (Air OPS); the UAE equivalent is CAR-OPS. A commercial operator must hold an Air Operator Certificate (AOC) issued by the authority.
- The operator is responsible for the continuing airworthiness of its aircraft. It either holds its own continuing-airworthiness management approval (CAMO) or contracts one, and uses Part-145 organisations for the maintenance.
- Documents that must be carried on board include the Certificate of Registration, the Certificate of Airworthiness, the noise certificate, the radio licence, third-party insurance, the AOC (or a copy), and the operational documents (operations manual extracts, MEL, mass and balance, journey log).
- The Minimum Equipment List (MEL) lets an aircraft be dispatched with certain items inoperative under stated conditions. The operator's MEL is derived from the manufacturer's Master MEL (MMEL) and may be more restrictive than the MMEL, but never less.
- The Configuration Deviation List (CDL) covers missing secondary airframe/structural parts (e.g. a fairing) with which the aircraft may still be dispatched, subject to any performance penalty.
- Rectification intervals: a MEL item carries a category (A, B, C, D) that sets how long the aircraft may keep flying before the item must be fixed.
- ⚠ Exam trap: the operator's MEL can be more restrictive than the MMEL but never less; and the operator — not the maintenance organisation — holds the AOC and owns the continuing-airworthiness responsibility.
- Air Operations rule
- (EU) 965/2012 (Air OPS) · GCAA: CAR-OPS
- MEL vs MMEL
- MEL is operator-specific, ≥ as restrictive as the MMEL
- MEL categories
- A, B, C, D — set the rectification interval
An operator's MEL is stricter on a given item than the aircraft manufacturer's MMEL. Is that permitted?
Yes. The MEL is derived from the MMEL and tailored to the operator; it may impose tighter conditions or shorter rectification intervals than the MMEL, but it can never be less restrictive than the MMEL baseline.
A cruise flight is planned with a small non-structural wing-to-fuselage fairing missing. Which document permits dispatch, and what must be considered?
The Configuration Deviation List (CDL) covers dispatch with certain missing secondary/structural parts. Any associated performance penalty listed in the CDL must be applied to the flight planning; if the item is not in the CDL, the aircraft may not be dispatched without it.
Air operations concept map
FreeAir Operations
Air operations quiz
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