Capt.

Dieter Harms, CEO, Harms Aviation Training Consulting Associates Biographie Captain Dieter Harms, born in 1940, started his career over 47 years ago with Lufthansa German Airlines. He flew a wide variety of aircraft and retired by late 2005 as a Captain on B 747400. He was the Head of the Lufthansa Pilot School in Bremen and Phoenix, AZ from 1980 until 1990, thereafter the Head of Training of Lufthansa German Airlines and from 1997 until his retirement the CEO of the newly founded Lufthansa Flight Training (FTO and TRTO), a Lufthansa daughter company. Captain Harms was involved with the application of Competency Based Training and the development of the Multi-Crew Pilot Licence (MPL) right from the beginning and served as an advisor to the ICAO FCLT-Panel from 2000 to 2005 and to the CJAA during the transposition of the MPL from Annex 1 into JAR-FCL in 2006. Besides running his consulting firm he works for IATA as a Senior Advisor in the IATA Training and Qualification Initiative (ITQI) and serves as a member on the EASA MPL Advisory Board. Abstract One of the IATA Training and Qualification Initiatives (ITQI) primary objectives within the endeavor to improve operational safety in civil aviation is the globally harmonized implementation of the Multi-crew pilot licence (MPL). The MPL enables the global civil aviation community to train future pilots according to the needs of modern transport airplane operation. It follows the principle of competency based training focusing on the achievement of a predefined outcome performance rather than on the accomplishment of a certain amount of hours. It is a systematic development of the ab-initio scheme following the shifted challenges in the operation of modern multi-crew transport airplane. Although globally 1300 + students have enrolled and 200 + graduates are checked out and flying the line and the feedbacks are positive the MPL principle is still facing threats like misunderstanding about the rationale behind the concept, inaccurate statements in media reports, lack of comprehension, incompetence, ignorance and last not least misuse of the name by rebranding old training schemes for marketing reasons. The presentation comprises the global status of MPL, its predominant characteristics, the major threats, first lessons learned and the way forward. Finally it wants to start a discussion about the possibility for long haul-only operators to apply the principle of MPL for their cadets who start their career as cruise copilots for a certain amount of time before they are checked out as fully qualified First Officers.