By providing a structured description of the hands-on activities that the Member States and Frontex need to undertake for the effective deployment of surveillance aircraft, these guidelines provide comprehensive information on the administrative and logistic processes that such deployment entails to all parties involved. Additionally, National Frontex Points of Contact (NFPOCs) and other competent national authorities may use these guidelines as a training tool as they include basic reference material for organising deployment. Hence, this publication also contributes to strengthening the interoperability and preparedness of the competent national authorities that provide or receive aerial support.

This Frontex Air-Crew Training Manual is the first step towards a unified European air operation system for border guards and police forces. A high level of flight safety through common training standards, the sharing of best practices, and harmonised procedures is the way forward to ensure successful future Joint Operations (JOs) in European border security. The main objective of this training manual is to set common training standards for both national and Frontex training.

This Manual sets common standards within Frontex Air-Crew Training for JOs for the following:

- meteorological flight minima

- proposals for the minimum flight crew

- description of training needs for air-crew members’ standardisation

- description of common training courses.