External Audit – EU/EASA Compliance Monitoring System at Düsseldorf Airport

The Compliance Monitoring System of an aerodrome operator plays a vital role in ensuring and verifying regulatory compliance with the applicable requirements (i.e. EU/EASA requirements).

But who verifies that the Compliance Monitoring itself is properly following the requirements from the EU/EASA regulation, aerodrome manual and internal processes? Auditing the Compliance Monitoring itself is not a “nice to have”, it is a key mean of compliance to the Aerodrome Regulation (EU) No. 139/2014. To be precise, AMC1 ADR.OR.D.005(b)(11) (e)(1) requires aerodrome operators to comply with the following:

The compliance monitoring itself should also be audited according to a defined audit schedule.

As audits have to be independent and functions must not audit themselves, an external audit is an effective and efficient solution to comply with this AMC.

airsight conducted an on-site audit of the EASA Compliance Monitoring System (CMS) at Düsseldorf Airport (DUS) as per the above-mentioned requirement. By awarding the audit to airsight, the client benefited from the following advantages:

• Independent and external feedback on the compliance status of the CMS. This includes valuable recommendations based on airsight’s experience in the industry.
• The audit was conducted in compliance with the requirement ADR.OR.D.005 (incl. respective AMCs).
• The airsight audit report serves as evidence for oversight audits of the Competent Authority regarding the above-mentioned requirements.

The audit was prepared by the experienced airsight audit team based on documents provided by the client. Doing so, the auditors identified areas of interest which were further verified during the on-site audits. The overall process of the external audit was based on the Guidelines for Auditing Management Systems (ISO 19011:2018).

A detailed audit plan was created by airsight which included respective time slots for each topic and related subtopics. The coordination between DUS and airsight was characterised by professional, open and efficient communication. This was the key to ensure that all topics could be covered within the agreed timeframe.

The audit focused on the organisational structure of the CMS at DUS (incl. personnel requirements and training), documentation (e.g. processes, manuals) and the main oversight activities of the CMS (i.e. audits and inspections). Besides that, the topic of change management and the management of the aerodrome manual were main pillars of the audit plan.

During the closing meeting, the results and impressions were presented to the EASA Compliance Manager and Accountable Manager of DUS. The outcomes of the audit were gratefully received by the client, and ideas for implementation and process adjustments were discussed. Doing so, DUS does not only fulfill the regulatory requirements but also even strives for further improvement of its CMS processes, ensuring safe and efficient aircraft operations.

If you also want to benefit from an independent and external audit in compliance with the CMS requirements of ADR.OR.D.005, contact us via e-mail or our website.

_{Photo Credit: © Flughafen Düsseldorf/ Andreas Wiese}