Clearing the Path to CBTA Approval: Lessons from IATA’s EATS Workshop

IATA ran a full-day workshop on CBTA and EBT course approval on Tuesday 3 November, ahead of the EATS 2026 conference in Cascais.

Moderated by Paulo Peixoto, Senior Manager of IATA’s CBTA Center of Excellence, CBTA & EBT Course Approval Preparation took airline and ATO training teams through the approval journey. It covered competency frameworks and assessment, programme validation and preparing for authority reviews.

Making the guidance clearer

The starting point for any CBTA programme is ICAO Document 9868, Procedures for Air Navigation Services – Training (PANS-TRG). But as Peixoto explained, the reference document isn’t always easy to interpret.

“This workshop was important because we were able to clarify some elements that are not completely clear in PANS-TRG, which is the reference document for CBTA,” he said. “When you read it, some parts are not completely clear, so we presented the elements that we think need a little more explanation.”

He added that the audience was “very engaged, with insightful questions,” and showed “a clear objective for their implementation of CBTA.”

Different stages, same questions

Participants came from organisations at very different points in their CBTA journey.

For one Middle Eastern airline, CBTA is already well established. “We have already implemented CBTA. It has been fully implemented for pilots and cabin crew,” a participant said. “We also have it in recurrent training, but not yet in initial. The depth of the workshop was very good, and it will help us see how we need to improve and what next steps we should take.”

They added that the workshop would also support their preparation for the IATA Operational Safety Audit (IOSA).

A participant from Aerolíneas Argentinas described an organisation earlier in the process. “We are moving to CBTA ourselves, and the session was very informative in this sense,” they said. “This needs to be done to help airlines move to CBTA.”

What it means for training teams

For Peixoto, the main outcome was clarifying parts of PANS-TRG that, in IATA’s view, need more explanation. For participants, the value depended on where they are in their CBTA journey, from an airline moving towards CBTA to one already using it in recurrent training and looking at next steps.

The conversation continues at EATS this week, with sessions on CBTA, EBT and instructor standardisation across the Pilot, ATO and Cabin Crew streams.

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