19 July 2013
The French Directorate General for Civil Aviation has awarded VOLDIRECT SAS an Air Operator Certificate (AOC), which enables the airline to fly commercial passengers on the Daher-Socata TBM 850. The single-engine turboprop is now certified to carry paying passengers in instrument flight conditions.
The company, Rennaise VOLDIRECT SAS is the first airline to get the green light for this kind of passenger transport.
The European Commission has accepted the technical file which demonstrates compliance with the regulations applicable to European companies. The TBM 850’s Pratt & Whitney Canada PT6 turboprop power plant – which has accumulated more than 350 million flight hours – made possible this evolution of the regulations to allow the use of a single engine pressurised aircraft for the public transport of passengers in instrument meteorological conditions.
EASA is currently working on the development of its rules in order to add this type of operation. This evolution – whose roots are in Europe – has already been adopted by Canada and the United States, and then generalised to all member countries of the Organization of the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO). 

<a href=’http://www.voldirect.aero/fr’ target=’_blank’>www.voldirect.aero/fr</a>
