The European Union Aviation Safety Agency has published its European Plan for Aviation Safety (EPAS) for 2026 — the 15th edition. The numbers are clear: 129 active safety actions are currently in place, 15 of them are new additions introduced in 2026. 31 actions were completed in 2025.
That sounds like progress. And it is — on a regulatory level.
But let me be direct: for OEMs, Tier-1 and Tier-2 suppliers, these 129 actions are not an abstract policy document. They are a compliance roadmap — and most organizations are significantly underprepared for what is coming.
What EPAS 2026 Actually Signals for Supplier Quality
Three structural shifts stand out, based on my reading of the 2026 edition:
1. Regulatory Simplification — But Not Where You Think
EASA has officially launched a Rule Simplification Programme under EPAS 2026, with the stated goal of reducing administrative burden and making regulations easier to implement. The first dedicated rulemaking activities targeting simplification are planned to launch in 2026, with at least one completed by 2028.
This sounds like good news for suppliers. It is — eventually. In the short term, simplification means transition periods, revised Acceptable Means of Compliance (AMC), and updated interpretations of existing standards. Organizations that interpret ’simplification‘ as a signal to reduce audit rigor will be making a costly mistake. Regulatory transitions are precisely when gaps widen and non-conformities accumulate.
2. Workforce Competency as a Systemic Safety Risk
EPAS 2026 has formally elevated workforce availability to a strategic priority — and added a new section to Volume I titled ‚Availability of Competent Aviation Personnel.‘ The language is unusually direct: unless the aviation industry addresses this challenge, the level of aviation safety may degrade in the long term.
From a Quality Management perspective, this is significant. Workforce competence is not an HR topic — it is a process stability issue. When organizations operate with undertrained personnel in quality-critical positions, the result is not just individual errors. It is systemic non-conformance that is difficult to detect and even harder to correct through audit alone. EN9100 Section 7.2 addresses this directly. The question is whether organizations treat it as a checkbox or as a genuine risk assessment.
3. New Safety Issues Added to the Safety Risk Portfolio
Two new safety issues were introduced to the EPAS Safety Risk Portfolio in 2026: in-flight fires in inaccessible areas, and out-of-spec synthetic aviation turbine fuels (SATF) in operations. Both have direct implications for material qualification and supplier management.
If your organization supplies parts or assemblies relevant to either of these domains and your risk assessment has not been updated accordingly, that is a gap that will surface in the next audit cycle.
What This Means in Practice — 3 Concrete Actions
→ Review your SMS (Safety Management System) against the updated EPAS Volume II actions. Specifically check whether your organization’s corrective action process covers the two new safety issues (SI-9011 and SI-0060).
→ Audit your competency matrix. Not the document — the reality behind it. Who in your quality-critical positions was trained more than 3 years ago and has not been reassessed?
→ Map your AMC documentation to the Simplification Programme timeline. If your current compliance structure is built on AMC interpretations that are scheduled for revision by 2028, you need a transition plan — not a reaction plan.
The Bigger Picture
EASA does not publish EPAS as background reading. It publishes it as a forward-looking signal to industry. The 15 new actions in 2026 represent areas where the agency has identified insufficient control. For quality professionals and supplier managers, that is the most important information in the document.
The question is not whether you are aware of EPAS 2026. The question is whether your internal systems are structured to respond to it — proactively, not reactively.
That distinction — between compliance awareness and compliance readiness — is where quality failures are born.
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Sources
EASA EPAS 2026: https://www.easa.europa.eu/en/document-library/general-publications/european-plan-aviation-safety-epas-2026
EPAS 2026 PDF: https://www.easa.europa.eu/en/downloads/142935/en