Getting new airliner models into the air and into commercial service may take a bit less time in the future, based on new agreements between the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration and the EU’s European Aviation Safety Administration, the two bodies that are the world’s primary certifiers of new planes.
The primary aspect of the plan is to align the two agencies’ regulations and procedures to avoid costly and time-consuming work by regulators and manufacturers; the alignment mainly involves U.S. changes to harmonize with EU protocols. Both agencies have vowed closer collaboration on safety and certification.
The FAA says its plan involves limitinging “exemptions, special conditions, and equivalent level of safety findings required during the certification process,” and says that modernizing airworthiness standards can cut certification time and costs without reducing safety.
Current procedures have resulted in long waits for certification on a number of models. In the U.S., it appears that the FAA and EASA are close to final approval of the book-ends of the 737 Max family, the smaller -7 and the largest -10 models.
