The UK Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) has received about 150 applications from U.S.-based maintenance providers seeking CAA approval, and the regulator is urging others interested to apply as soon as possible as a crucial year-end deadline nears.
As part of the UK’s withdrawal from the European Union (EU), U.S. repair stations were given a transition period to shift from relying on the U.S. bilateral with the EU to one struck with the UK. Part of the transition is obtaining UK CAA Part 145 maintenance organization approval.
Starting in January 2023, the door opened for U.S. shops to apply for UK certification. The U.S. and UK long ago agreed on Sept. 30 as the application deadline, which allows 90 days for approvals before the transition period runs out on Dec. 31.
“If you see the UK as a credible market for products and services that you provide and you haven’t applied for a UK Part 145 approval, please do so,” CAA Head of Airworthiness Policy and Rulemaking Neil Williams said at the recent Aeronautical Repair Station Association annual conference. “We’d like you to apply as soon as possible so we know the total number of organizations we can expect to see take up approvals. And secondly, because it takes time to process these things.”
Williams said the current list of 150 applicants could double by the deadline, potentially creating a late-year logjam at a critical time for maintenance providers in the Brexit transition process.
“We don’t really want anybody being stuck at the end of the year ... because they’re waiting for the approval to come through,” Williams said.
An applicant does not need a signed contract with a UK customer, he added. A simple “expression of interest” from a potential customer is enough to get an application reviewed.
“You do need to provide some evidence of need, but we don’t set the bar especially high,” he said.
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