Publications

24 Mar 2010

FAA rulemaking aims to impose new duties on owners of US-registered aircraft

Transportation Alert

Jennifer D. Homer

Owners of US-registered aircraft may soon face new rules relating to the registration of their civil aircraft on the US registry if the Federal Aviation Administration has its way.

The FAA has published a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking that would require Certificates of Aircraft Registration to be renewed every three years and would require holders of existing Certificates of Aircraft Registration to re-register their aircraft. Currently, a Certificate does not expire.

The proposed rules – part of a rulemaking aiming to increase and maintain the accuracy of the FAA’s records in the Civil Aviation Registry – would not only impact individual and corporate owners of US-registered aircraft, but commercial operators, fractional ownership programs, lessors and lenders, among others. With a three-year renewal, an owner would bear the responsibility of meeting the renewal requirements as well as the consequences for failing to meet these requirements.

Failure to comply with these new rules would have serious consequences. The aircraft registration and Certificate of Aircraft Registration will be invalidated, resulting in cancellation of the N-number, risks to the perfection and priority of security interests on the aircraft, potential complications with respect to the sale of the aircraft and possible fines, grounding of the aircraft or even seizure of the aircraft.

If passed, the proposed rules will be codified in Part 14 of the Code of Federal Regulations as part of the Federal Aviation Regulations as new Section 47.40.

The proposed rules are currently under review by the Department of Transportation and would then need to be cleared by the Office of Management and Budget. Sources close to the FAA anticipate that the rule may become final as early as June, 2010.