Aviation Services Accreditation Support Program

Overview

The Aviation Services Accreditation Support Program (the Program) will run over six months from 29 March 2021 to 30 September 2021. The Program represents part of the Australian Government’s continued economic response to the Coronavirus, providing financial assistance to Australia’s aviation industry to assist with the impact on the aviation sector from COVID?19. Capital constraints, a workforce that has been underutilised for an extended period, and prolonged uncertainty are all likely to constrain Australian ground handling companies’ ability to adequately service the industry as activity ramps up. A key challenge is ensuring that the workforce is appropriately trained and certified in line with regulatory requirements. A significant portion of aviation ground handling staff have not worked since March 2020 and due to this long period of negligible flying activity, the ground handling workforce are likely to require retraining and reaccreditation to ensure safety standards are maintained for all flights. Noting that ground handling organisations service all aspects of aviation, the Program will provide capped grants to eligible businesses to contribute to mandatory training, certification, and accreditation of ground handling workers essential for the operation of aircraft. This contribution will set a floor to ensure that the sector is in a position to respond as domestic flying activity recovers. It is anticipated that the Program will cover approximately 30% of the training requirements of the pre-COVID workforce. Training support would be available for both new and existing employees, as required to support aviation recovery. The capped grants will not cover the complete training requirements of all employees. As such, the grants should be distributed appropriately by eligible businesses across their workforces to ensure the objectives of the Program can be met.