The National Air Transportation Association (NATA) is eyeing an expansion of its Safety 1st Professional Line Services Training (PLST) program in Europe as more companies look to improve or standardize their ground-handling services. “We’ve always had a few companies in Europe that used PLST,” said NATA president and CEO Tom Hendricks. But with last year’s rollout of the International Standard for Business Aviation Handling, which includes the NATA’s Safety 1st Ground Audit Program, more operators have become interested in the line services training program.

The association is reviewing its PLST program, which has been widely adopted in the U.S. to “see if we can make that more suitable for Europe,” Hendricks said. NATA is working with a number of ground handlers in Europe to explore ways to better tailor a PLST program for the region.

NATA looks at this expansion as European ground handlers face new ICAO safety management system requirements. Hendricks pointed to the push by the European Aviation Safety Agency to move to a more risk-based regulatory approach, and said that underscores the need for programs such as PLST. “We see this as a great opportunity to help aviation companies,” he said.

The move to expand PLST in Europe may be the first step of increasing NATA’s presence in the region. Hendricks notes the association already has a number of members that either operate or have facilities in Europe. Increasing its representation to more international companies could be a natural progression for the association. Hendricks indicated that the association could consider a number of options, from expanding its reach or partnering with other organizations to help represent those companies.

He noted if they did take such a step, the NATA name would have to come under review, to see if it needed to be changed to reflect an international reach. Hendricks added that this wouldn’t necessarily have to be limited to Europe, pointing to rapid growth in Asia, as well as a need for standardization in Latin America.

The NATA board has discussed such possibilities, he said. But he said that the association wants to take any potential expansion one step at a time, testing the waters first with PLST.