The US federal government partial shutdown which has ended last Friday (25/01/2019) has been affecting the aviation system for 35 days. During the shut-down, several maintenance organisation approvals issued by EASA and by the FAA under the EU-US Bilateral Aviation Safety Agreement were coming due for renewal in both the United States and in EU Member States.
To minimise the impact of the shutdown on those maintenance organisations, FAA and EASA agreed on pragmatic solutions while ensuring uncompromised level of safety. In particular, the FAA called back to work a significant number of safety inspectors to ensure continuous oversight of their organisations.
On this basis FAA and EASA have agreed that EASA extends the expiring EASA approvals for the US-based maintenance organisations for 60 days, using a special procedure agreed in accordance with the provisions of the EU-US Bilateral Aviation Safety Agreement and its Maintenance Annex Guidance.
In parallel, the FAA confirmed to EASA that FAA approvals of maintenance organisations located in EU Member States will be timely renewed or will enjoy the same exceptional extension of 60 days of their current approvals.
EASA has already started to issue such extensions and affected organisations are being contacted individually.
With the ending of the shut-down, the FAA is resuming business as usual. EASA will continue to monitor the situation to avoid any business disruption.
