Legal Update: Updates Re Turkish Aviation Industry

A new regulation amending the Commercial Air Transport Enterprises Regulation (“the Regulation”) numbered 31060 dated March 6, 2020 was published in the Official Gazette.

Amendments on the Regulation are as follows:

Aircraft Age Restrictions: The article 19 (ı) of the Regulation stating that except for aircrafts operating for firefighting, the aircrafts operating for passenger transportation cannot be over 15 years of age and aircrafts operating for the cargo carrying purposes cannot be over 25 years of age on the first registration date to Turkish Civil Aviation Registry, is abolished.

Letter of Guarantees: As per article 19 of the Regulation; air operators to be licensed according to the articles 15th and 16th of the Regulation, are required to submit a definite letter of guarantee issued worth USD 500,000.00 for unlimited time to the General Directorate of Civil Aviation (“General Directorate”) prior to obtain their license. The letter of guarantee in question will be liquidated by General Directorate in the event that the air operator fails to maintain its operating license.

In this context, letter of guarantees received from air operators whose operating licenses have been cancelled will be liquidated upon the request of the Directorate General and with the approval of the Ministry of Transportation, Maritime Affairs and Communications subsequently two months as of the cancellation.

With the latest amendment in the article 19, in the event that an air operator that is licensed according to articles 15 and 16 of the Regulation, transfer all its assets and liabilities to another air operator, the letter of guarantee submitted to the General Directorate will be returned to the transferee operator.