Additional Inspections for Foreign Repair Stations

Prior to the passage of the FAA Reauthorization Bill, the White House condemned the bill for falling short of reforms proposed by the Administration. One of the issues that the White House has targeted is a provision that would require the FAA to perform two inspections a year on each FAA-certificated repair station outside the United States.

Presently, the FAA has agreements with France, Germany and Ireland to perform repair station inspections on its behalf. Those countries handle inspections of 152 of the 700 currently certificated foreign repair stations. The FAA oversees 1200 foreign-certificated repair stations in the U.S. on behalf of the foreign regulatory authorities.

The Congressional proposal to require the FAA to conduct these inspections would significantly complicate existing international contractual obligations, as well as increasing costs and straining operational efficiency. Additionally, the FAA is negotiating similar agreements with EASA, Australia, China and New Zealand, and this language would prohibit the United States from taking advantage of these reciprocal agreements.

This proposed language is related in scope to the requirement from several years ago for TSA to begin doing security inspections of repair stations. That language has still not yet been implemented because Congress has never given TSA the funds to implement the inspections.

The House bill (HR 2881) is now before the Senate for consideration. It is not yet enacted into law.