Free Trade in the Market for Aviation Maintenance Services

ARSA Position

Repair stations are an essential element of aviation, regardless of location. Some in Congress subscribe to the belief that maintenance done outside our borders is unsafe. However, without foreign repair stations, international travel would be impossible. ARSA ensures that lawmakers and regulators realize that we are just one part of a global aviation community, and need to treat all repair stations equally.

Discussion

The U.S. aviation maintenance industry is highly-regarded worldwide. As a result, the U.S. enjoys a favorable trade balance in the market for these services. Currently, there are 708 FAA-certificated repair stations outside the U.S. At the same time, there are approximately 1,200 U.S. repair stations certificated by the European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA), and numerous other NAA-certificated repair stations inside our borders, a fact that has benefited U.S. repair stations, their employees, and the towns and states in which these maintenance facilities are located.

The House FAA reauthorization bill (H.R. 915) contains provisions aimed at foreign repair stations that threaten to upset the international market for aviation services.
The problematic sections of H.R. 915 are:

  • Section 303 – Requiring the FAA to inspect all foreign repair stations twice a year, including those in bilateral partner countries. Requiring anti-drug and alcohol testing of foreign repair station personnel under U.S. rules. These requirements create serious extra-territorial and privacy issues in foreign countries beyond this nation’s jurisdiction.
  • Section 310 – Dramatically restricting the use of qualified non-certificated facilities such as specialized service vendors and original equipment manufacturers.

If these proposals are adopted, the first casualty will be the bilateral aviation safety agreement (BASA) between the United States and the European Union. The result will be that U.S.-based repair stations holding EASA approval will no longer fall under the BASA fee schedule, but rather will face greatly increased fees both for initial certification and surveillance. Additionally, a collapse of the BASA would end EASA's acceptance of FAA inspections of U.S.-based EASA approval holders. Thus, U.S. companies must pay for EASA personnel to inspect a facility. Furthermore, EASA stated that it lacks the inspectors to adequately cover the over 1,200 U.S.-based EASA approval holders. The result will be a rationing of inspections, with those repair stations not being inspected being forced to surrender EASA certificates.

The Senate version of the FAA reauthorization bill (S. 1451) is less onerous than the House counterpart. The Senate version, while requiring twice annual inspections of foreign repair stations, exempts those located in countries that have a maintenance BASA with the United States. In addition, the Senate bill does not force all foreign repair station indviduals to enter the Department of Transportation anti-drug and alcohol testing pool. Rather, the legislation requires all stations to submit testing procedurs that are in accordance with national protections. While ARSA remains opposed to any attempt to micro-manage the aviation industry, the Senate bill will not lead to the exceedingly negative results that its House counterpart will.

Congress needs to hear how these proposals directly impact your business and how important foreign customers are to your bottom line.