Aunt Ju - no more commercial flights
The Ju-Air's permit for commercial passenger flights is withdrawn. However, Ju-Air can continue to offer passenger flights for its club members under technical and operational conditions.
When Ju-Air was founded over 35 years ago, the Federal Office of Civil Aviation (Bazl) granted an operating license for commercial passenger flights to three vintage Junkers Ju-52s from Swiss military stocks. At the time, several exceptions were granted for a national regulation.
Risk reassessed
Following the accident involving a Ju-Air aircraft in summer 2018, the Bazl has reassessed the risks of passenger flights with vintage aircraft and has come to the conclusion that continued commercial operation with historic aircraft no longer meets current safety requirements. This decision was also supported by facts from the ongoing accident investigation by the Sust supported. In addition, European legislation for vintage aircraft will change from mid-2019 and no longer allow commercial operation, the federal office said. In Germany, Lufthansa also no longer supports commercial passenger flights with its own Ju-52.
Operation only for club members
On the other hand, operation in a private context and under national conditions should continue to be possible, as the Bazl writes. Anyone who is a member of the "old-timer club" does not have to give up the adventure flight. For this reason, this requirement does not hit Ju-Air too hard, as its press spokesman told Regionaljournal: "Most passengers already belong to the Association of Friends of the Swiss Air Force (VFL); this is Ju-Air's supporting organization. The federal office now requires vintage aircraft operators to inform their club members about the higher risks associated with historic aircraft compared to modern passenger planes.
Since aircraft such as the Ju-52 can carry a larger number of passengers, they must meet higher technical and operational requirements than smaller vintage aircraft, according to Bazl. An additional complication for the Ju-52s is that there is no longer a manufacturer responsible for continuing airworthiness. The Bazl, like other national supervisory authorities, is not in a position to take on this task, if only for reasons of resources. The private operators of large vintage aircraft would therefore either have to acquire this expertise themselves or delegate this task to an external company.
Technical measures not yet fulfilled
As Ju-Air is not yet able to fully comply with the technical measures required by Bazl, its vintage aircraft will have to remain on the ground. In the meantime, Bazl is not in a position to make any statements about when Ju-Air will resume flight operations, the media release concludes.
Ju-Air plans to take off with a Ju-52 this summer
In its media release of March 12, Ju-Air in Dübendorf writes that it is in a position to set up the organization required by the Bazl to ensure future flight operations and to engage the necessary external experts and organizations. However, this will take several months. In the meantime, the old-timer airline is to be granted a transitional arrangement that will allow safe flight operations.
The airline says it is preparing for the long-term continued operation of its three historic Ju-52s. To this end, the aircraft, now 70 and 80 years old, would be completely dismantled and overhauled. For the most comprehensive overhaul work in the 36-year history of Ju-Air, flight operations would have to be reduced in the summer of 2019 and 2020. However, a first old-timer is already scheduled to take off again this summer 2019.
Furthermore, the Ju-Air media release emphasizes that there are still no indications that a technical cause led to the HB-HOT accident. (rs)
