Development of regulatory training program for the operator of Cyprus Airports

Abstract

The purpose of this dissertation was to register the training requirements for personnel operating in the airside areas of Larnaka and Pafos International Airports based on European Union requirements. It identified the training subjects that Commission Regulation (EU) No 139/2014 obligates airport operators to provide to their staff and to personnel of other agencies operating in the airside areas of the airport, the preferred training methodology and methods for measuring and assessing the competency of trainees as well as the frequency of recurrent training and the importance assigned to each training subject by airport personnel. To define the required training subjects, the qualitative approach was applied, and data were collected primarily from European Union Aviation Safety Agency and International Civil Aviation Organization publications. For the rest of the research questions, a survey was conducted via questionnaires that were distributed to airport personnel who in turn provided feedback on the aforementioned issues. The results indicated that to comply with European Union Aviation Safety Agency regulatory requirements the airport operator must organize and deliver ten training subjects. While all were evaluated relatively high on the importance scale, some were considered more important than others. Another conclusion of the study is that recurrent trainings are considered a necessity, although the frequency varies according to the subject. Also, annual competency checks can be incorporated in the training plan in order to replace annual recurrent trainings. In this case, the training frequency decreases for all training subjects. With some exemptions, a combination of training methods was preferred for both initial and recurrent trainings while the same applies for testing following the initial trainings. In the case of testing following recurrent trainings, a standalone testing method is preferred in most cases. This also applies regarding the preferred method for assessing the competency of employees during annual competency checks. A comprehensive training plan based on the results of the survey is presented in Appendix D of this dissertation.