Duffy presses FAA to speed up aircraft certification

Speaking in Washington on Wednesday, Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy argued that aircraft certification in the United States takes too long. Slow approvals may be discouraging manufacturers from starting new programmes at all, he said, warning that the country could lose ground to China unless regulators shorten the time needed to clear a new design while keeping existing safety requirements. "Can we move faster?" he asked, adding that safe aviation has to be preserved, according to Reuters.

His comments follow a June FAA proposal to update certification standards for transport-category aircraft and propulsion systems. The plan would write exemptions, special conditions and equivalent-level-of-safety findings that the agency grants frequently into the regulations themselves, instead of handling them case by case. The FAA has said it expects the revisions to cut certification costs and administrative delays without lowering safety, and that they would bring some US standards closer to European requirements. The effort builds on an earlier Part 25 update proposal. General aviation aircraft certified under Part 23 are not covered by the June plan.

Several large programmes have run well past their original certification schedules. Boeing's 737 MAX 7 was certified by the FAA in August after a process that lasted more than eight years, and the 777X remains more than five years behind schedule. FAA Administrator Bryan Bedford has backed certification reform and said the agency is working with industry on ways to make the process more efficient.