First State-Run Flight Operations Dept. To Earn Rating

The Virginia Department of Aviation tells ANN it has become the first state-operated flight operations department to receive a certification known as the International Standard for Business Aircraft Operations (IS-BAO).

IS-BAO began as a program in May 2002, and since that time only 120 flight operations departments in the business aircraft community have been certified worldwide, according to the DOAV.

"For more than 40 years, the Commonwealth of Virginia has provided world-class air transportation services for its Governors, other elected officials, state agency directors and their staff," said Secretary of Transportation Pierce Homer. "The Department of Aviation has an extraordinary safety record. I am pleased that we have received this certification and tremendously proud that we are the first state in the nation to do so."

The parent of the IS-BAO effort is the International Business Aviation Council, which developed it as a code of best practice for the benefit of flight operations departments in the rapidly growing business aviation sector. It serves as a benchmark of professionalism and standardization for the conduct of flight operations departments and addresses such items as SOPs, while at the same time allowing an outside critique of strengths and weaknesses of the flight department operations procedures.

Safety is the core of the effort, but not the only aspect for review. Business practices, among others, are also examined. IS-BAO gives the Department a known and true industry standard of safety accepted worldwide.

DOAV's Flight Operations and Safety Division employs six full-time and four part-time pilots, two maintenance personnel, and a flight coordinator. The state operates two Hawker Beechcraft King Air 350 turbine executive aircraft, and one single-engine Cessna 206 to provided executive flight service to Virginia state agencies.

FMI: www.doav.virginia.gov, www.ibac.org/is-bao/isbao.htm