EASA 2025: Complacency Threatens Aviation Safety, Calls for Rule Simplification
At the EASA Annual Safety Conference, experts highlighted complacency as a significant threat to aviation safety in Europe. They emphasized the need for simplifying existing regulations to better address current safety challenges and reduce administrative burdens.
Key facts
- Complacency identified as a key threat to aviation safety in Europe.
- Experts advocate for simplifying regulations to address current safety challenges.
- Focus on reducing administrative burdens and resolving regulatory inconsistencies.
2 minute read
EASA’s warning on complacency is a governance problem as much as a cultural one. Years of low accident rates can dilute risk sensitivity, particularly as traffic mixes legacy fleets with new entrants such as drones and eVTOL. Simplifying the rulebook is not deregulation, it is prioritisation. Europe needs performance based, risk graded requirements that channel attention to the hazards that move the needle, from runway incursions and human factors to cyber vulnerabilities and data integrity in digitalised operations.
Regulatory complexity is now a safety risk in itself. Fragmented interpretations across national authorities slow approvals, create uneven oversight and distract operators with paperwork. A trimmed, coherent framework would support cross border operations and accelerate deployment of U space air traffic services, remote pilot certification pathways and scalable safety cases for new technologies. Clearer Acceptable Means of Compliance and guidance material, updated frequently, would reduce ambiguity and allow authorities to focus resources on intelligence led audits.
The strategic dividend extends to defence and resilience. Civil aviation forms the backbone of Europe’s mobility, medical evacuation and sealift replacement options, and close civil military coordination in airspace management is essential in crises. Harmonised, risk based rules strengthen surge capacity, improve interoperability with NATO air mobility, and bolster protection against grey zone threats such as GPS interference and unmanned aircraft misuse. Prioritising data sharing, just culture reporting and modernised air traffic management will raise both safety and preparedness.
Europe’s ability to adapt its safety regime at speed will shape airpower credibility in the next decade.
