Aircraft Certification

During the last decade, the production and sale of commercial transport planes became increasingly international in scope. Thirty percent of the components for the Boeing 767, for example, now originate outside the United States. The Federal Aviation Administration's (FAA) certification of aircraft and coordination with foreign authorities are critical to the safe and efficient production of aircraft. This report discusses (1) the benefits of common international certification standards and practices, (2) the effectiveness of efforts to produce such commonality, and (3) differences in the relationship between certification authorities and aircraft manufacturers in the United States and Europe.

GAO found that: (1) the current aircraft certification process is inefficient and raises manufacturers' and users' costs because of different interpretations of regulations by FAA and the Joint Aviation Authorities (JAA) of Europe, which impose additional requirements and duplicate certification activities; (2) regulatory resources spent on duplicate activities could be used to address other safety issues; (3) common standards and practices would lower costs and increase safety; (4) statutory obligations and differing experiences or concerns lead to differences in regulations; (5) FAA and JAA have accomplished little in eliminating differences and duplication because they have not formulated a focused strategy or specific procedures to coordinate certification, and JAA has concentrated more on eliminating differences between its own members; (6) to improve harmonization, FAA has proposed, and JAA has concurred in, the development of a strategic plan establishing specific objectives and time frames, and a new certification approach; (7) the relationships between certifying authorities and manufacturers in the United States and Europe differ in the charging of users' fees, the use of manufacturers' employees to do certification tests, the involvement of manufacturers in the rulemaking process, and the use of cost-benefit analyses of regulations; and (8) other factors, such as FAA alacrity in issuing regulations and its use of its regulation advisory committee, may also affect harmonization activities.

Recommendations

Our recommendations from this work are listed below with a Contact for more information. Status will change from "In process" to "Open," "Closed - implemented," or "Closed - not implemented" based on our follow up work.

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