[Peetwo]

Courtesy of Steve Creedy from the Oz an update, with industry feedback, from his earlier in the week scoop on Jeff Boyd's appointment as CASA Board Chairman..

Industry hails Jeff Boyd as new CASA chairman  

• by: STEVE CREEDY
  
• From: The Australian
  
• May 15, 2015 12:00AM
  

Aviation Editor
Sydney




New CASA chairman Jeff Boyd with wife Lara Corry-Boyd. Picture: Dean Osland. Source: Supplied

News that industry veteran Jeff Boyd will be the new chairman of the Civil Aviation Safety Authority has received strong industry support.  

The announcement that the Brindabella Airlines founder would head the board for three years was made by Deputy Prime Minister Warren Truss on Wednesday and comes as the air safety regulator is moving to repair a fractured relationship with the aviation industry.

The Aviation Safety Regulatory Review report, chaired by industry veteran David Forsyth, last year called for sweeping reforms after criticising CASA for taking too hard a line and maintaining an adversarial approach to the industry, which had lost trust in the authority.

Mr Truss has since installed former air vice-marshal Mark Skidmore as the director of aviation safety, revamped the board and last month delivered a letter of expectations to the authority, calling on it to work more closely with industry.

Regional Aviation Association of Australia chief executive Paul Tyrrell said regional airlines fully supported Mr Boyd’s appointment. “His 36 years in the industry, including running an airline, give him a deep understanding of the challenges facing the aviation industry and the experience to lead overdue change, in partnership with the DAS, across CASA,’’ he said.

Aviation Maintenance Repair and Overhaul Business Association head Ken Cannane said the appointment had his group’s “overwhelming support’’.

“At long last a chairman that has practical experience to understand the industry,’’ he said.

The Aerial Agricultural Association of Australia, another industry group that has led the criticism against CASA, described the announcement “as the most welcome news that the aviation industry has had for a long time’’.

AAAA chief executive Phil Hurst said the industry was looking forward to urgently moving ahead with issues such as Part 61 flight crew licensing and flight and duty times.

The association is also not happy about a recently released discussion paper on changes to aerial firefighting.

“We’re enormously encouraged by Jeff taking over the position of chairman, with his background in hands-on aviation and also in running a company,’’ Mr Hurst said.

“His commercial insights and his management insights are going to be absolutely critical to making CASA a more efficient and effective regulator.’’

Mr Hurst said the AAAA had recently lodged a 20-page submission to CASA on red tape ­reduction, seeking a new business model for working positively with CASA, and he believed Mr Boyd’s appointment set the scene for a healthier way of finding effici­encies.

“I think that once you look at the message that came out of the federal budget of trying to help small business, that’s a really big issue that CASA could take on board and do a lot of good with very quickly.’’

South Australian Liberal senator David Fawcett said Mr Boyd brought a wealth of aviation experience in both management and operational roles to the board.

Mr Boyd has served as deputy chairman since July last year and will succeed Allan Hawke, who headed the board from 2009.

Mr Truss paid tribute to Dr Hawke’s efforts and said he was looking forward to working with Mr Boyd and the new CASA board as they engaged with the industry to implement the government’s response to the Forsyth review.

Mr Boyd has more than three decades in the regional aviation industry and founded Brindabella in 1994 before selling in 2011. The airline foundered under its new owners but was considered a success under Mr Boyd.

He was a vice-chairman of the Regional Aviation Association of Australia and is a ­qualified commercial pilot and a licensed aircraft maintenance engineer. He has also owned and operated a flight training school.

Mr Truss also reappointed Angus Houston for a further two-year term as chairman of Air­services Australia.

“Sir Angus’s performance as Airservices chair over the last three years … demonstrates the attributes that will stand the organisation in good stead for the next two years,” Mr Truss said.

Oh and this was Dougy's comment on these good tidings..

So Jeff Boyd will assume the CASA board chair when the current chairman steps down shortly. That was the original plan and it’s good to see that, despite distractions along the way, it is coming to fruition. Jeff is a warrior from the regional aviation sector with a solid track record of achievement - and is a genuinely good guy as a bonus. For me, that rules out any thought of David Forsyth taking up a CASA board position when the next vacancy occurs, which is a bitter/sweet result. Bitter, because DF probably has a better overview of, and insight into, CASA than anybody standing as a result of his lead in last year’s report and that would have added significant value to the CASA board. Sweet, in the sense that it leaves him free to provide an independent informed perspective on the evolution of a ‘new’ CASA. 

MTF...P2