Commercial air transport is the part of civil aviation that involves aircraft operation for remuneration or hire, for the transport of passengers, cargo or mail. This operation includes schedule/non schedule flights, charter and flights on demand.
An Operator to be involved in commercial air transport must be the holder of a valid Air Operator Certificate (AOC) issued by the Hellenic Civil Aviation Authority and a valid Commercial Operating License. This AOC is issued by the HCAA according to Commission Regulation (EU) No 1139/2018 as amended and its implementing Rules. The Commercial operating license is also issued by the HCAA under the Regulation (EC) No 1008/2008 as amended.
The issue of an AOC and Commercial Operating License authorizes an Operator to conduct commercial air transport operations according to the conditions and limitations described in their Authorization.
To obtain an AOC and a Commercial Operating License an Operator must successfully complete initial certification phase and satisfy HCAA for its competence to secure the safe operation of aircraft. Then the Operator is subject to continuous oversight by HCAA and is audited regularly for competence and adequacy of resources in areas such as compliance monitoring, management and organizational structure, crew training, flight planning, flight inspections, ground Operations and in many other areas.
In commercial air transport a large aircraft, corporate jet, helicopter, small single-engine aircraft or a balloon may be used.
