Security | GAA

The cockpit video and audio recording case

July 16, 2018

The result of the hearing by District Court Judge Cunningham has been published. Her decision has gone against the case presented by counsel for the pilot involved. The issue for the Court in the application for a pre-trial hearing was about the status of the evidence presented. The prosecution, with the assistance of the police, had compiled a DVD which included footage from the …

No apologies for acting in the public interest, says the CAA

April 5, 2018

The CAA has now had the opportunity to consider the material presented by the Des Lines and Brian Mackie including their “Overview” document and the results of their “Client Satisfaction” survey. The CAA welcomes feedback on its performance. As a responsible state sector entity, the CAA must – and does – operate in an environment of accountability to the public, whose interests it ultimately …

Shocking, insane and incompetent: Customers condemn the ‘toxic’ CAA

The full results of the GAA’s independent survey of CAA client satisfaction have been published. The report reveals significant disapproval and disquiet. On virtually all questions seeking a rating of 0 (no satisfaction) to 10 (very high), the Authority scored below 5 and in some cases, such as cost control, less than 2. The CAA is described by some GA customers as “shocking”, “insane”, …

We’re calling for a public inquiry into the CAA

The GAA is seeking a public inquiry into the Civil Aviation Authority. On 5 April, the GAA released a report detailing known and alleged CAA failures and shortcomings and another showing the results of the independent CAA client satisfaction survey. The dossier of failures and shortcomings has taken about six years to compile. It contains evidence of failures by the Authority and its governing …

Client Satisfaction Surveys in a post-factual world…

March 26, 2017

The CAA is either living in a fools’ paradise and thinks all its customers are happy, or it is deeply afraid to ask them. We can’t think of any other reason why the CAA refuses to hire a neutral organisation and tell it go to the customers and ask some honest questions. We also have convincing proof that no company or organisation can rely …

CAA Notices – The tentacles of regulation just keep growing longer

In mid-February, the CAA announced its intention to publish CAA Notices as a means of ensuring that “the regulatory framework remains responsive and adaptable to change.” On the surface, these objectives almost appear noble. But when we peel back the layers, what emerges is a worrying erosion of the checks and balances that have underpinned aviation rule-making since the early 1990s. A CAA Notice …

The Ministry of Transport can hardly move a muscle. Here is some evidence

February 14, 2015

Following the last election, and the long overdue departure of Gerry Brownlee as Minister of Transport (arguably the CAA’s least competent overlord in living memory) to his new role in protecting our great nation as Minister of Defence, we must now work with two new faces: Simon Bridges as Minister of Transport and Tukituki National MP Craig Foss, Associate Minister of Transport, responsible for …

CAA funding and the fuel levy: It ticks all the boxes except the one marked ‘Too hard’

December 2, 2014

Based “on information to hand, the CAA Board does not support the introduction of a fuel levy”. This is the hidden headline in the CAA’s summary of feedback to its Stage 1 consultation. Hidden, in fact, on the final page of its document. In one throwaway line. Yet this was the most significant and most widely supported suggestion made by respondents to Stage 1 …

User Pays and the Law of Diminishing Returns. The more we pay, the less we fly

October 6, 2014

I have never been a great fan of Government bureaucracy, especially when it is being funded by my hard-earned tax dollars. We all expect value for money and never complain when we see that the service received from government departments has improved, or that our taxation dollars are being well spent. But now I think our tolerance of the Government’s “user pays” ideology has …

The real enemy of aviation is not the CAA. It is the Treasury

August 17, 2014

I attended the CAA meeting in Palmerston North on the Funding Framework for 2015 to 2018, after travelling from Hastings. Initially, I was not terribly interested because, as many will know, CAA has cost me an enormous amount of wasted hours over the last few years, and I saw this as probably some more wasted time. Like everyone else, my feeling was “What is …

Category: Security