Originally Posted by
Dan Winterland
Now officially known as EDTO. Extended Diversion Time Operations.
Seems to be dependent on the Authority. I'm doing my ETOPS recurrent next week, so still in use where I am as well:
The Regulatory Context
ICAO Requirements for
Extended Range Twin-engine Operations (ETOPS) have been in place since 1985, when they were introduced to apply an overall level of operational safety for twin-engined aeroplanes which was consistent with that of the modern three and four-engined aeroplanes then flying, to which no restrictions were applied. As aeroplane reliability and range improved, it became clear that all multi turbine-engined aircraft were pushing the boundaries of flight away from nearby alternates to increasingly distant ones and a review of the existing arrangements for ETOPS began.
After many years of discussion about how to broaden the facilitation of international flights for all large transport aeroplanes which necessitated tracks with no close-by diversion aerodromes (or could be more efficiently routed with the use of these tracks), led in 2012 to changes to ICAO Annex 6 Part 1 under Amendment 36. This introduced the
Extended Diversion Time Operations (EDTO)regime in place of ETOPS. However since then, although the EDTO regime has been widely accepted, the term EDTO has not been universally adopted the continued use of ETOPS is explicitly allowed for in Annex 6 provided that EDTO concepts "are correctly embodied in the concerned regulation or documentation". Given this flexibility, the term 'ETOPS' has been retained by the FAA and others by redefining it as an abbreviation for 'ExTended range OPerationS' rather than as previously 'Extended range Twin OPerationS'. EASA currently continues to use ETOPS as originally defined and the abbreviation 'LROPS' (Long Range OPerationS) for extended range operation by three and four-engined aircraft.