Organisations must follow national and international aviation rules. Each Air Operating Company operates under at least one jurisdiction, but many are under several due to their flight routes.
Regulations governed by organisations like EASA (European Union Aviation Safety Agency), SMR (San Marino Aircraft Registry), the FAA (Federal Aviation Administration) and the UK CAA (United Kingdom Civil Aviation Authority) each have their own way of publishing regulations and compliance guidelines. The SmartSuite platform has standardised these Regulations into a common format, making them easy to find and view.
SmartRegs is a new AI-powered compliance platform that makes regulatory management easier in aviation. It provides access to over 120 international aviation regulation frameworks, smart responses with source citations, and tools for automated document checks and change tracking. Furthermore, the platform features a user-friendly design for compliance professionals.
SmartRegs focuses on normalizing, formatting, and showing regulations data, ensuring it's fit for purpose and helpful to aviation compliance teams.
How to navigate to SmartRegs.
Users can find a complete library of regulations in SmartSuite by selecting the Regulations module from the Dashboard:
Or by clicking the Switch Module icon and then selecting Regulations:
Currently, users can view the latest regulations, search them, copy text for citations, and use the Regulations AI Agent.
Layout and navigation
Regulations are structured hierarchically and organised to manage the new and constantly changing regulations from international bodies.
Once you access the Regulations module, you will see a view like this:
The page is split into 2 sections.
1 - The navigation sidebar on the left is always visible but can be minimized, if required.
2 - The right side shows the details of the selected regulation.
The navigation sidebar is organized in hierarchical levels:
- The top level shows the responsible Regulator / Authority.
- You can expand each to see the related groups / category headings.
- Each group / category heading can be expanded to show specific regulation titles, which you can select to view on the right side of the screen.
- When you select a regulation, it divides into sections that group regulation items.
- Expanding a regulation section shows the relevant regulation items, which include
- Implementing Regulation (IR), Guidance Material (GM), and Acceptable Means of Compliance (AMC).
- Finally, select an item to see the detailed regulatory text.
Publish date / Effective date / History
When you choose a regulation title from the navigation sidebar, the top right part of the screen shows key details, which include:
- The publication date of the regulation.
- The effective date of the regulation.
- A History button that lets users see the source document for the chosen regulation.
Selecting the History button will reveal a slide menu, listing the Regulation History sorted by date of publication.
Each historical item listed offers a View Source Document hyperlink, which when selected loads the appropriate source document for the regulation.
Full screen mode
Each regulation item has a full screen icon, which when selected shows the regulatory text in an i-frame, on the screen.
This offers additional tools, including:
- Copy regulation – copies the whole selected regulation with one click.
- Copy link to regulation – makes and copies a link to the selected regulation.
- Print regulation – lets users print the selected regulation.
- Copy with citation – copies a specific part of the regulation with source details.
- Reader mode – provides a cleaner view, removing clutter to focus on content.
- Zoom in / zoom out options – allowing users to adjust the font size.
Comparing regulation versions
Sometimes, earlier versions of regulations are available and if appropriate, there will be advisory text stating Previous version available.
Furthermore, users can compare previous versions with the current versions.
Clicking the Compare versions button opens an i-frame showing two versions, side by side.
Like the Full Screen mode i-frame, there are additional tools available:
- Copy regulation – copies the entire current regulation (text in the left portion of the i-frame).
- Copy link to regulation – creates and copies a link to the selected regulation.
- Copy with citation – copies a specific part of the regulation with source info (note you must highlight a specific part first).
- Exit Comparison button – closes the side-by-side view, to display the previous version only.
- Change version being compared – a drop-down allowing users to select different previous versions of the regulation.
Differences between regulation versions are clearly indicated with red and green indicators:
- Text highlighted red indicates the previous text, which has been changed / corrected.
- Text highlighted green indicates the current text.
If there are no differences, users are prompted with a ‘No differences found’ advisory.
Future versions
Aviation regulations often provide a transition period between when they are published and when they become effective. This gives organizations time to implement necessary changes.
Gaining early access to these rules helps you:
- Understand upcoming requirements
- Develop compliance strategies
- Train staff on new procedures
- Implement necessary changes to systems and processes
Our system displays upcoming rules that are officially adopted but not yet active.
Users will clearly see when regulation items have a future version available, along with guidance text explaining that the regulation will be updated automatically.
It is also possible to compare the future version with the current version, in a side-by-side format.
AI Agent functionality
We’ve added an AI Agent to the Regulations module. This agent can search the full breadth and depth of the regulation’s library, answer user questions, and direct users to relevant regulations. To access the agent, simply select the chat button within the Regulations Module.
Users can either select one of the example questions or ask a variety of questions of their own choosing, from simple inquires to more complex queries and the agent will respond automatically.
Some example questions to try might include:
- Find and display EASA.CAO.A.020
- Can you provide me with a simplified checklist of requirements for an FAA Part 135 operator to meet part 5 SMS requirements?
- What are the FAA requirements for pilot rest periods?
- How do FAA SMS requirements compare to EASA?
There are several additional tools within the Regulations Agent i-frame:
- Start new chat – creates a separate, additional tab. Meaning users can have multiple chat instances open at the same time.
- View chat history – displays a list of ‘recent conversations’ with the Regulations Agent.
- Minimize – collapses / hides the Regulations out of view.