What is Part CAMO?
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Part-CAMO is Annex Vc to Commission Regulation (EU) No 1321/2014 and sets the approval and organisational requirements for continuing airworthiness management organisations responsible for managing aircraft continuing airworthiness.
What it means in practice
Part-CAMO defines how a CAMO is organised and how it performs continuing airworthiness management. In practical terms, the CAMO controls the maintenance programme, monitors mandatory continuing airworthiness requirements, ensures approved data is used for repairs and modifications, manages maintenance contracts where needed, supervises maintenance output, and maintains the continuing airworthiness evidence trail.
The CAMO does not become the maintenance organisation simply by holding the continuing airworthiness function. If it does not also hold a maintenance approval, it must manage written maintenance contracts and ensure the physical work is performed by an appropriately approved maintenance organisation. This separation is one of the key practical points in Part-CAMO.
Who it applies to
Part-CAMO applies to organisations approved to manage the continuing airworthiness of aircraft where the regulatory framework requires or allows that management model. It is central for licensed air carriers and for other operations where a CAMO is mandatory under M.A.201. It is also relevant to owners and operators who contract a CAMO instead of building the function themselves where permitted.
The rule applies to the organisation, not only to one post-holder. It therefore covers the management system, competence, record-keeping, the CAME, contracting arrangements, airworthiness review privileges where held, and the day-to-day continuing airworthiness processes across the managed fleet.
What EASA says
CAMO.A.200 requires the organisation to establish, implement, and maintain a management system. CAMO.A.300 requires a continuing airworthiness management exposition (CAME) that sets out the organisation's scope, people, responsibilities, procedures, contracts, approved maintenance programmes, and continuing airworthiness controls. CAMO.A.305 is the personnel requirement clause, not the AMP clause; it sets the accountable manager, nominated persons, airworthiness review staff, and competence control framework. CAMO.A.315 is the operational core of continuing airworthiness management and requires the CAMO to control the AMP, ensure modification and repair data compliance, assess non-mandatory information for complex aircraft and licensed air carriers, route aircraft to approved maintenance organisations, and order and supervise maintenance.
The continuing airworthiness record-keeping framework is in CAMO.A.220 together with the Part-M record requirements for the aircraft. That matters because many people still mix up legacy Part-M Subpart G references with the current Part-CAMO structure. The current rule is explicit: the CAMO manages the continuing airworthiness function and, where it does not hold maintenance approval itself, it manages the written maintenance contracts needed to ensure maintenance is properly carried out.
Common mistakes
The biggest mistake is describing Part-CAMO as if it were just "the new name for Part-M Subpart G". The history matters, but the current compliance task is to read the current Annex Vc text and its interfaces, not to work from legacy labels.
Another common error is shifting AMP ownership to the maintenance organisation. The maintenance organisation performs maintenance. The CAMO controls the AMP and the continuing airworthiness management decisions unless the aircraft sits in a different approved framework. A third mistake is underestimating the risk-management requirement for non-mandatory modifications and inspections in CAMO.A.315(b)(4).
Sources
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