Prospective European clearance for commercial single-engine IMC operations (SEIMC) continues to progress through regulatory approval stages but will not come this year, according to industry sources close to the proceedings.

The expected approval could be among the early decisions of the European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA), which was scheduled to take over operations responsibilities from the Joint Aviation Authorities (JAA) on October 1.

Notice of Proposed Amendment 29 (NPA 29) has evolved through at least 13 draft stages over several years. The main JAA committee met late last month to consider NPA 29 formally and decided to continue work in three areas: minor changes of draft text to more correctly address aspects now coming under EASA responsibility; similar detailed changes to ensure compatibility with latest International Civil Aviation Organization SEIMC developments; and a further look at the regulatory effect of proposals.

When–or rather if–approval comes next year, SEIMC operations could theoretically begin immediately, more than 20 years after initial proposals