Article 4 Exemptions for special operations

GENERAL

(a)The exemptions covered by Article 4 are intended for cases where the operation is of sufficient public interest to warrant allowing non-compliance with this Regulation, including the acceptance of the additional safety risks involved in such operations. Possible exemptions for normal operations, which are outside the scope of this Article, are covered by the specific provisions in the Annex (e.g. in provisions containing formulations such as ‘as permitted by the competent authority’, ‘unless otherwise specified by the competent authority’, etc.).

(b)Depending on the case, the competent authority may decide to grant the exemption to individual flights, groups of flights, or types of operations performed by specified operators.

(c)The exemptions may be granted either permanently, or as a temporary measure. Where the exemption is granted permanently, particular attention should be paid to ensuring that the conditions of the exemptions continue to be complied with over time.

(d)As referred to in Article 4(3), and depending on national rules, some of these operations may be performed under the Operational Air Traffic (OAT) rules in certain Member States and, thus, are entirely outside the scope of this Regulation.

The competent authority, when granting exemptions in accordance with Article 4, should consider not only case-by-case requests coming from individual entities, but also may grant general exemptions for groups of entities entitled to carry out the listed activities.