In the European Plan for Aviation Safety (EPAS), EASA regularly identifies the main safety risks and other issues affecting the European aviation system and sets out the necessary actions to mitigate them.
This edition of the EPAS covers a shorter, three-year period from 2023 to 2025 and sets targeted priorities for that time. The intention is to create a better focus and therefore also faster, smoother implementation. The aspirational goal of the EPAS to ‘maintain collectively the pre-pandemic high aviation safety level throughout the recovery phase and improve safety post-recovery’ remains unchanged in this edition.
However, this EPAS edition is published at a time where the industry is still affected by external shocks, the most visible of which were the COVID-19 pandemic and the Russian invasion of Ukraine. The strategic priorities have therefore been reviewed, aiming at fostering a safe, secure, sustainable and resilient aviation system, capable of coping with disruptive events of any type. The COVID-19 crisis also demonstrated that safety, security, health safety and other risks can no longer be managed in isolation. Collaboration between domains is vital at global, European and national level to minimise risks of all types. EPAS supports the creation of an enabling framework, fostering capabilities to identify and manage interdependent risks by allowing better visibility on, and enhancing the understanding of, such risks to define the most effective risk management strategy.
The EPAS strategic priorities for environmental protection continue to support the implementation of the European Green Deal, which sets an ambitious goal for the EU to be climate neutral by 2050. With sustainability crystalising as a business imperative, EPAS remains instrumental in ensuring an integrated approach to action planning and programming, so that sustainability solutions will not come at the expense of safety.
