5th February 2014: It has come to our attention that a number of misguided statements have been made in the Scandinavian media in recent days with regard to the Irish Aviation Authority concerning its safety regulatory performance and capability. We understand that this is in relation to the current application by Norwegian Long-Haul Airlines to obtain an Air Operator’s Certificate from Ireland.

The negative statements to which we refer are derogatory and are not factual. Therefore, although this is an unusual step, the IAA is happy to take the opportunity now to clarify its excellent performance record in relation to safety oversight of international airlines in order to alleviate all unnecessary concerns and to counter the false information which is currently in the public domain, as follows:

1. In 2011, Ireland was ranked amongst the best in the world for civil aviation safety oversight, following an intensive international audit by the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) conducted during 2010. The safety oversight audit of Ireland was carried out in accordance with the standard auditing procedure defined by ICAO as the “Lack of Effective Implementation” (% LEI), which ranked Ireland third in Europe and fourth worldwide, as illustrated in the tables below. For further information, please see: https://www.iaa.ie/news.jsp?i=325 which contains a copy of the ICAO Report and a summary of the Report findings by the IAA.

2. In July 2013, the EUROCONTROL Performance Review Body (PRB) published its Annual Monitoring Report on safety which ranked Ireland first out of 29 European states for the measure of Effectiveness of Safety Management (EoSM) – a key metric for the quality of safety regulatory oversight – as illustrated in the chart below. For further information, please see: https://www.iaa.ie/safety- performance

3. The IAA already provides safety regulation of one of the largest international airlines in the world (Ryanair) to the highest international standards. That airline operates over 300 aircraft, via a point-to- point system from 64 bases across Europe and northern Africa, and carried over 81 million passengers in 2013.

4. The IAA has provided safety regulatory oversight to long-haul airline operators with services on the North Atlantic for many years (Aer Lingus, as an example), as well as the safety regulation of aircraft on the Irish Register from other regions worldwide such as Russia, Italy, Columbia, Mexico, and Spain.

For any further information, we wish to draw attention to the IAA’s safety regulatory performance record, please see: https://www.iaa.ie/safety-performance