Authorisation holders can suspend their certificate, authorisation, or both when they are not active. Holders may also suspend if they are not meeting regulatory requirements in relation to their operation.
Requesting a voluntary suspension to a certificate or authorisation
To temporarily suspend your authorisation you must write to us.
This applies if you are:
- an individual or corporation holding an authorisation (covered by section 11.130 of the CASR)
- an AOC holder that is not compliant or unable to comply with aviation legislation. An example of when you may not be compliant is if you have no key personnel. You can remain compliant under section 28BA of the Civil Aviation Act 1988.
Length of the suspension
You can specify the period of your suspension. We cannot suspend an authorisation beyond its expiry date.
If you don’t specify a timeframe, we will suspend the authorisation for 12 months.
Sending a suspension request
You can request to suspend an authorisation or certificate using our form. In the form you must include:
- authorisation holder’s name
- aviation reference numbers (ARN)
- certificate number
- requested suspension period.
You don’t need to include reasons for requesting a voluntary suspension.
You do need to include a reason for AOC suspensions. This includes written details of the justification for the suspension. This usually relates to an inability to comply with the regulatory requirements.
Process of voluntary suspension
We will review any request for voluntary suspension. Once we have reviewed the request we will send our decision in writing.
We will contact you before the suspension end date to confirm if you want to continue or come out of the voluntary suspension.
Providing information to come out of a suspension
We may require more information from you to come out of your suspension. This depends on the reasons for the suspension.
As the authorisation holder, you can select the period of the suspension and will end when you specify.
If there are compliance issues, you will need to work with us through our standard processes. This may include:
- verification of open Safety Findings raised from previous surveillance events
- providing updated manuals to make sure you are compliant with legislative requirements.
We may conduct a surveillance event before we lift your suspension. You need to be compliant before we lift the suspension.