The European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) published Safety Information Bulletin (SIB) 2020-07 giving guidance to aerodromes to prepare for a return to normal operations. This is part of a wider project to offer guidance across the various aviation domains.

Following the outbreak of COVID-19 and limitations imposed by individual States, the majority of flights have been suspended and aerodromes have been forced to scale down or suspend their operations until flights resume.

In many aerodromes across Europe, operational areas such as runways and taxiways are used for the long-term parking of grounded aircraft; aerodrome systems such as airfield lighting and radio navigation aids have been switched-off and regular inspections and maintenance may not always be performed according to schedule.

Although it is not defined yet when operations will restart, it is important that aerodromes are prepared in order to resume operations safely.

For this reason, under their safety management system and in cooperation with air navigation service providers, the aerodrome operators should establish a plan that should be implemented prior to the start of operations.

Please see the full Safety Information Bulletin 2020-07 for more information.

The European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) has agreed on concrete measures that will offer financial relief to companies in the aviation industry whose business has been severely impacted by the COVID-19 crisis. These measures take account of the continued sustainability of EASA and have been agreed with the support of the European Commission.

The Agency will for a limited period not charge interest in cases of late payment, as provided for in Article 4.3 of the Fees and Charges Regulation.*

For all invoices issued between February 1, 2020 and June 30, 2020, the late payment clock has been stopped and will restart only on July 1, 2020.

July 1, 2020 will be considered as the 31^st day of payment and therefore late payment interest will be applied from that day.

EASA will postpone the issuance of its regular invoices for annual fees for two months, from June to August.  The annual invoices will be issued on August 1, 2020 and late payment interest will apply from the 31^st day (so from August 31, 2020).