Lausanne airfield meets ICAO requirements
Lausanne airfield's safety processes meet the requirements of the International Civil Aviation Organization. The Federal Office of Civil Aviation has issued the corresponding certificate to the operating company.
In its standards and recommendations, the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) has defined the specifications for safety-relevant processes at airfields. The requirements contained in Annex 14 define, among other things, how an airfield must organize the refueling of aircraft, the deployment of the fire department, the periodic condition check of runways and approach lighting, and snow removal. With these requirements, ICAO wants to ensure that the infrastructure at an airfield functions safely and smoothly at all times. The safety-relevant processes must be recorded in an airfield manual, which also forms the basis for a safety management system. Such a system describes how an organization identifies existing risks, evaluates them and reduces them with suitable measures.
In an audit lasting several days, the Federal Office of Civil Aviation (FOCA) checks whether the airports' processes and procedures comply with the specifications and are applied as described. After successful initial certification, the FOCA in Lausanne also conducts recertification audits every five years to determine whether the airports' safety-related processes still comply with ICAO specifications.
Lausanne airfield is the thirteenth airfield in Switzerland to be certified by the FOCA in accordance with ICAO requirements, after Geneva, Zurich, St. Gallen-Altenrhein, Bern, Sion, Lugano-Agno, Les Eplatures, Samedan, Birrfeld, Ecuvillens, Grenchen and Bressaucourt.
With the certification of Lausanne airfield, all Swiss national and regional airfields are now certified. The binational airport Basel-Mulhouse is certified by the French supervisory authorities, with the participation of the FOCA.
Source: Federal Office for Civil Aviation
