The Commission regulation (EU) No 965/2012 lays down technical requirements, administrative procedures and detailed rules for commercial air transport operations with aeroplanes and helicopters, including ramp inspections of aircraft of operators under the safety oversight of another State when landed at aerodromes located in the territory subject to the provisions of the Treaty. This new regulation, which is generally known as IR-OPS (Implementing Rules – Operations), replaces EU-OPS (Regulation (EC) 859/2008) and is intended to harmonise with ICAO Ops provisions. This regulation was adopted on 5 October 2012, applicable from 28 October 2012.
Article 1
Subject matter and scope
1. This Regulation lays down detailed rules for commercial air transport operations with aeroplanes and helicopters, including ramp inspections of aircraft of operators under the safety oversight of another State when landed at aerodromes located in the territory subject to the provisions of the Treaty.
2. This Regulation also lays down detailed rules on the conditions for issuing, maintaining, amending, limiting, suspending or revoking the certificates of operators of aircraft referred to in Article 4(1)(b) and (c) of Regulation (EC) No 216/2008 engaged in commercial air transport operations, the privileges and responsibilities of the holders of certificates as well as conditions under which operations shall be prohibited, limited or subject to certain conditions in the interest of safety.
3. This Regulation shall not apply to air operations within the scope of Article 1(2)(a) of Regulation (EC) No 216/2008.
Article 10
Entry into force
1. This Regulation shall enter into force on the third day following that of its publication in the Official Journal of the European Union.
It shall apply from 28 October 2012.
2. By way of derogation from the second subparagraph of paragraph 1, Member States may decide not to apply the provisions of Annexes I to V until 28 October 2014.
When a Member State makes use of that possibility, it shall notify the Commission and the Agency. This notification shall describe the reasons for such derogation and its duration as well as the programme for implementation containing actions envisaged and related timing.
To better understand the scope here are the referenced paragraphs from Regulation (EC) No 216/2008:
Article 1
Scope
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2. This Regulation shall not apply to:
(a) products, parts, appliances, personnel and organisations referred to in paragraph 1(a) and (b) while carrying out military, customs, police, search and rescue, firefighting, coastguard or similar activities or services. The Member States shall undertake to ensure that such activities or services have due regard as far as practicable to the objectives of this Regulation;
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Article 4
Basic principles and applicability
1. Aircraft, including any installed product, part and appliance, which are:
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(b) registered in a Member State, unless their regulatory safety oversight has been delegated to a third country and they are not used by a Community operator; or
(c) registered in a third country and used by an operator for which any Member State ensures oversight of operations or used into, within or out of the Community by an operator established or residing in the Community; or
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IR-OPS applies from 28 October 2012; however, Member States may decide not to apply the provisions of Annexes I to V until 28 October 2014. It is understood that all 27 EASA Member States have decided to delay implementation until 2014.
