EASA Requests Spur Need for Legislative Action

The European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) is sending a letter to part 145 repair stations in the United States with EASA approval requesting information on the number of technical staff and types of ratings held by each company.

The information is being requested in anticipation of congressionally mandated inspections by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) of foreign based repair stations, including those located in countries with bilateral aviation safety agreements (BASA). The European Union (EU) has made it clear that if the legislation passes without exempting BASA countries with Maintenance Implementation Procedures, EASA will be required to fully certificate all U.S. based repair under EASA part 145.

That means all U.S. based repair stations wishing to work on EU-registered products (aircraft, engines, propellers and component parts) will need to:

1. Create a separate quality control and assurance manual based upon EASA part 145 (click here for an explanation of all the items that need to be considered by repair stations in non-bilateral countries wishing EASA approval).
2. Pay full price for the certification, which includes—

   a) A fee based upon the total number of—

   i) Technical staff (those actually working on the civil aviation articles); and,
   ii) Administrative staff directly related to the approval (such as quality assurance personnel that may not work on the article but which are needed to obtain and maintain the EASA approval).

   b) A fee for each type of rating.
   c) A annual surveillance fee.

   d) The initial certification (approval) and each annual surveillance fee will also include the travel expenses for EASA auditors, which consists of—

   i) Business class travel for each auditor; and,
   ii) Per diem costs of 200 Euro for each auditor for each preparation, audit and travel day.

The EASA letter that U.S. repair stations should be receiving shortly can be found here.

The Return form (which can be completed in Microsoft Word, turned into an Adobe document and e-mailed back to EASA) can be found here.

Questions may be directed to foreign145@easa.europa.eu or to arsa@arsa.org.

The current action by EASA does NOT mean that initial and recurring surveillance certification fees are definitely going to rise. Rather, EASA is gathering this information in response to legislation passed by the U.S. House of Representatives that would cause the collapse of the bilateral aviation safety agreement (BASA) between the United States and European Union (EU).

The legislation is the House version of the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) reauthorization (H.R. 915) which contains arbitrary twice annual inspections of all foreign repair stations by FAA personnel and requires that foreing repair station personnel be included in the Department of Transportation drug testing pool. The EU has clearly stated that these provisions are contrary to the BASA and if they become law, the BASA will cease to operate.

However, the bill has yet to become law. The Senate version of the FAA reauthorization legislation (S.1451) contains less onerous provisions. That bill currently awaits a vote by the full Senate. After passage of S. 1451, it will be conferenced with the House version, meaning that the two bills will be compromised to create one final bill that will be voted upon by both the House and Senate before being forwarded to the president for signature. If the House language is removed in conference, the BASA will stay intact and fees associated with EASA certification will remain at current levels.

As the Senate bill moves forward, ARSA will be diligently vigilant against any attempts to amend the legislation to make it correspond to the House version. In addition, ARSA stands ready to let those senators and representatives appointed as conferees know that the House language cannot be included in the final bill. During this time, it remains imperative for membership to weigh in with elected representatives urging the rejection of any language limiting the use of foreign repair stations.

For additional information and background on the legislative front, click here

Get Involved Now

Now is the time to ensure that the measures in the House bill are defeated and access to the European market remains economically viable! Contact your representatives to let them know how trade prohibitive measures in FAA reauthorization will impact your business. ARSA has constructed a form letter for repair stations to place on company letterhead and fill in with pertinent data and fax to senators and representatives. Fax numbers for representatives and senators can be found at http://www.congress.org.

The letter to Representatives may be found here.

The letter to Senators may be found here.

If you have any questions or need assistance please contact ARSA Director of Government Affairs Matt Hallett (matt.hallett@arsa.org) at 703 739 9543.