EASA 2026 Safety Review: What the New Rules Mean for MENA Aviation

In July 2026, the European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) published the 19th edition of its Annual Safety Recommendations Review. This publication analyses safety recommendations processed by EASA throughout 2025, offering a clear forecast of regulatory requirements.

These directives carry significant operational and commercial weight for MENA airlines, maintenance providers, and aviation authorities.

“In aviation, we have to constantly reconsider how safe we are,” noted EASA Executive Director Florian Guillermet during a recent European aviation safety summit.

“We need to come together to take the right actions, including to ensure that we don’t do compliance for the sake of compliance but for the sake of safety, to keep safety standards high.

” This move from administrative box-ticking to proactive safety management forms the base of every page of the 2026 review.

What the 2026 EASA Data Reveals

The 2026 safety review details EASA’s handling of 39 safety recommendations stemming from 20 separate operational occurrences. These occurrences included 13 accidents, 5 serious incidents, and 2 standard incidents. 

In 2025, EASA issued 80 formal replies addressing 78 specific safety recommendations. 71% of EASA’s final replies resulted in the definitive closure of a safety issue through direct regulatory implementation or compulsory design changes.

Globally, the agency’s focus has narrowed to hardware integrity and operational procedures. More than half of all recommendations (56.41%) targeted aircraft equipment and facilities, while procedures and regulations accounted for a further 33.33%.  

The agency’s broader direction is catalogued in the European Plan for Aviation Safety (EPAS) 2026, which formally introduces new initiatives spanning big data technologies for risk management, rules simplification, and the safe integration of synthetic aviation fuels.

Why EASA Standards Matter in MENA

While EASA regulations technically end at Europe’s borders, the operational reality for the aviation sectors of the 22 Arab-speaking nations is inextricably linked.

Strict compliance with EASA standards remains an absolute baseline requirement for sustained market access, codeshare integration, and uninterrupted ground operations in European hubs.

EgyptAir MS804: EASA Safety Issue SI-9012 Explained

The most direct connection between the 2026 report and the MENA region stems from the investigative work of the Egyptian Aviation Incidents Bureau (AIB).

As a result of the 19 May 2016 loss of EgyptAir Flight MS804 over the Mediterranean Sea en route from Paris to Cairo, resulting in the loss of all 66 passengers and crew on board, the Egyptian Aviation Incidents Bureau (AIB) issued a safety recommendation (EGYP-2025-003).

This directive called for urgent research into non-Halon fire extinguishers to safely suppress oxygen-fed cockpit fires.

EASA responded strongly to the Egyptian AIB findings. The agency has partnered directly with Airbus to launch a comprehensive continuing airworthiness review focusing on oxygen system leakages across all in-service Airbus types.

Concurrently, EASA established a dedicated safety issue (SI-9012)—originally introduced in the EPAS 2025 Volume III edition—to evaluate the necessity of automatic oxygen shut-off valves and advanced fire-protective equipment. 

For MENA carriers heavily reliant on Airbus fleets, including operators such as Saudia, Qatar Airways, Air Arabia, Kuwait Airways, and EgyptAir itself, this regulatory change forecasts an upcoming wave of mandatory retrofits and Airworthiness Directives (ADs).

Regional Maintenance, Repair, and Overhaul (MRO) facilities must immediately update their financial forecasts and prepare their supply chains to support advanced oxygen-fed fire suppression systems and diagnostic tooling.

TOPMS Rule RMT.0741: Gulf Hubs New Take-Off Rules

To overcome the risks posed by incorrect flight data input, EASA is accelerating the development of minimum operational performance standards for Take-Off Performance Monitoring Systems (TOPMS) under Rulemaking Task RMT.0741.

Working in collaboration with EUROCAE, this technological leap is of the utmost importance to the MENA airspace.

Gulf operators routinely carry out ultra-long-haul, maximum-take-off-weight departures out of extreme-temperature environments, where summer ground temperatures frequently exceed 45°C.

In such high-density-altitude situations, the aerodynamic margin for error in V-speed (critical operational airspeeds for safe aircraft operation) calculations is practically non-existent. 

A single small error regarding the Zero Fuel Weight or Outside Air Temperature by a fatigued flight crew can result in disasters such as tail strikes, runway excursions, and controlled flight into terrain (CFIT).

The future requirements for EASA-certified TOPMS (Take-off Performance Monitoring System), a system capable of alerting crews to inconsistent or clearly erroneous take-off data, will provide an automated safety net for heavy wide-body departures from congested hubs such as Dubai, Doha, and Riyadh.

The New Ground Rules: What MENA Airlines Need

Historically, the ground handling sector operated in a regulatory grey area, relying on self-policing and industry standards like the IATA Airport Handling Manual (AHM) and Ground Operations Manual (IGOM). It is only now, for the first time, strictly bound by European law.

The new Commission Delegated Regulation (EU) 2025/20 and Implementing Regulation (EU) 2025/23 mandate formal Safety Management Systems (SMS), strict fatigue management protocols, and rigorous personnel training for all Ground Handling Service Providers (GHSPs) operating at EU aerodromes.

Following the November 2025 Easy Access Rules for Ground Handling, European GHSPs must self-declare by March 2027 and reach full compliance by March 2028.

Essential requirements include appointing dedicated de-icing coordinators, introducing ground staff fatigue management, and integrating SMS frameworks with airlines to seamlessly share safety data.

MENA airlines operating into Europe under Third Country Operator (TCO) authorisations must immediately audit their Service Level Agreements. 

While Airlines remain fundamentally responsible for the safety of their operations, they must now integrate their internal hazard-reporting software, both technologically and procedurally, with the new SMS frameworks of their European handlers. 

Furthermore, MENA scheduling departments must anticipate potential turnaround delays at European hubs as local handlers adjust staff rostering to comply with new, strict fatigue limits.

RMT.0180: Engine Maintenance for MENA Operators

The harsh environmental realities of the MENA region, characterised by severe atmospheric dust and fine sand ingestion, drastically accelerate engine wear and thermal degradation.

Under Rulemaking Task RMT.0180, EASA is updating guidance on the substantiation of engine Time Between Overhaul (TBO) and Time Between Replacements (TBR).

Regional Part-145 approved MROs, such as Joramco and Saudia Aerospace Engineering Industries, must ensure their predictive maintenance algorithms and overhaul schedules align with these tightened European updates.

Navigating SI-0060: Out-of-Spec SAF

EPAS 2026 highlights a new safety issue: SI-0060, covering out-of-spec synthetic aviation turbine fuels (SATF) in operations.

With the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Egypt investing heavily in becoming global production hubs for Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF) to meet decarbonisation targets, EASA’s pre-emptive focus on the risks of synthetic fuels such as varied energy densities or seal swelling serves as an early warning.

MENA fuel producers and airline procurement teams must closely monitor EASA’s updates to ensure their regional fuels do not trigger operational restrictions when aircraft enter European airspace.

Drone Hubs: Why MENA Should Adopt EASA SORA

A noteworthy statistic tucked inside the 2026 review is that exactly zero safety recommendations regarding Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) were addressed to EASA in 2025.

While this does not imply a total lack of incidents, it signals that Europe’s current UAV regulatory framework is maturing effectively without exposing systemic, high-level deficiencies.

For the UAE’s General Civil Aviation Authority (GCAA) and Saudi Arabia’s General Authority of Civil Aviation (GACA), both of which are managing massive growth of commercial drone deliveries and urban air mobility networks, EASA’s success offers a highly stress-tested blueprint.

By adopting EASA’s pre-emptive, risk-based Specific Operations Risk Assessment (SORA) methodology, MENA regulators can safely accelerate the integration of UAV traffic into their rapidly modernising smart cities without reactionary rulemaking.

Europe’s Framework, MENA’s Challenge

The EASA 2026 Annual Safety Recommendations Review shows an industry moving to stamp out complacency. The document makes it clear that EASA views human performance as the ultimate, irreplaceable fail-safe. 

In a rapidly developing MENA market, with a surge in fleet expansion and an ongoing global pilot shortage, relying solely on rigid flight time limitations will be insufficient.

Regional carriers must immediately adopt advanced Fatigue Risk Management Systems (FRMS) and non-punitive peer-support structures to sustain their ambitious growth safely.

Ultimately, EASA’s latest guidance sets a gold standard for the global community.

The challenge for MENA’s aviation leaders lies in adapting these rigorous European frameworks to suit local infrastructure realities, workforce dynamics, and environmental challenges.