Brexit and Part-145 personnel
Aircraft Maintenance Engineer inspecting engine
Brexit will change the face of aircraft maintenance contracting in Europe.
In the 20 years that we have been doing recruitment for the aviation industry in Europe, the largest contingent of contractors has always been British. Over the last 5 years the balance has changed so that other nationalities have become more represented, but there are usually some British contractors in most Part-145s that use temporary workers.
That will now change because of Brexit.
There are two main factors that we will focus on: Part-66 Licences and Work Permits.
Part-66 Licences
As of 1st January 2021, the UK CAA is no longer an EASA member. It is still not exactly clear what the relationship will be, as can be seen in these excerpts from the UK CAA website.
“While the agreements involve some elements of continuity, they do not constitute a replication of the UK’s regulatory arrangements as part of the EASA/EU framework and many sections of the aviation and aerospace industries will face changes after 31 December….. We will study the detail of the new agreements and will update relevant pages of the [web]site as information becomes clearer about how the new arrangements will work in practice.
The advice for Licensed Engineer with a UK CAA Licence is - “If you wish to continue to release EU-registered aircraft to service outside the UK you will need to transfer your licence to the National Aviation Authority of an EASA member state. You are advised to have a discussion with the relevant NAA as soon as possible about their process and timetable for transfers.”
What does this mean for Part-145s?
If you are an EU-based Part-145, you cannot use Licensed Engineers with UK licences to sign for your EU registered aircraft. They can still sign for G-registered aircraft, but only for those.
The UK CAA has allowed Engineers with EU licences to continue signing for G-registered aircraft until 31 December 2022, but the EU has not returned the favour.
What we’re doing
We will no longer look to supply Engineers with UK-issued Part-66 Licences to Part-145s in the EASA region. For most aircraft types, Engineers with EASA Licences and the relevant type ratings can be found from EU member countries, so we will look to supply them instead.
There are some aircraft types where there are very few Licensed Engineers available in the EU - for example the Sikorsky S-92A. We are already speaking to the customers that this affects to find the best way to deal with this issue.
Work permits
UK citizens no longer have the automatic right to work in the EU/EEA region. This means that we will need to apply for a work permit.
This will be relatively easy in some countries - Norway for example. Norway is not in the EU and there are a lot of nationals from each country working in the other due to the North Sea Oil industry. We are already well-progressed making the necessary arrangements for our workers in Norway and expect there to be no disruption to our clients there.
Some other countries such as Denmark have said that they are not going to enforce the requirement for UK citizens to hold work permits immediately. They are planning to phase-in the registration of Brits over the course of 2021 so they don’t have to deal with them all in January.
The work permit process
Each country has its own version of this, but the basic process is usually something like this: -
The employer registers with the local employment authorities as a work permit sponsor. To do this, they usually need to have a registered office in that country.
The employer advertises the vacancy with the local job centre / employment service.
After 4-8 weeks, the employer can apply for a work permit if they have not received any suitable applicants.
You will already see that this process won’t work for aircraft maintenance contractors for two main reasons: -
The agency would have to register an office in every single country in which they want to supply people.
The process takes way too long and will end up being expensive.
What we’re doing
Our basic position is that we will look to supply workers who are already eligible to work in that location. If you’re in the EU, the easiest and quickest thing to do is to supply an EU citizen to fill your vacancy. If you’re in the UK, we will supply you a UK citizen.
Summary
Brexit feels like a massive step backwards for the industry and for our business, but we’ve had plenty of time to plan for it. We will still keep supplying the our EU-based customers with EU workers. We don’t currently plan to establish offices in other countries but will go down this route if we find it’s necessary.
We’ve got a work permit solution already lined-up for Norway and are just waiting for the official paperwork guidance to put this in place. With the rest of Europe, we will have to wait and see what come out in the ‘fine print’ of the Brexit deal. We will update you more when we have any news.