Aviation Week & Space Technology - 3 November 2014

as China and India were “expected”

in 2012, the figures have remained at

roughly the same levels.

EASA’s workload is relevant for sev-

eral reasons, with prioritizing resourc-

es being the most obvious one. Another

is revenue generation. EASA’s Europe-

based certificate holders fund about

70% of EASA’s annual budget, while

another few percentage points come

from foreign entities with European

operations, such as maintenance pro-

viders with repair stations in Europe.

“In 2013, the agency paid particular

attention to resource optimization in

an efort to perform its planned activi-

ties within

budgetary

constraints,”

EASA ex-

plains in its

latest annual

report.

In all but

the most

extreme

cases—such

as when an

aircraft is

grounded—certification workload

takes a backseat to immediate safety

issues, such as issuing airworthiness

directives. EASA pushed out 350

directives in 2013, including 193 for

transport-category aircraft. c

—Sean Broderick

Europe

Signing Off

Establishing aviation industry rules

and then enforcing them are often cit-

ed as the most common tasks that civil

aviation authorities perform. But for

authorities like the European Aviation

Safety Agency (EASA), a robust home

market of manufacturers and service

providers means certifications are in

high demand.

An interesting trend is emerging as

the aviation industry recovers from the

2008-09 economic downturn, however.

For reasons that are unclear, certifica-

tion activity—at least in Europe—is

not following suit.

The agency received slightly more

than 5,000 certificate applications in

2013—a small decline from the year

before, according to figures released in

its 2013 annual review. Of these, 3,741—

again a slight decline from the prior

year—were issued.

Included among the certificates were

approvals for big-ticket items like the

Rolls-Royce Trent XWB and the Air-

bus A400M, which earned a restricted

type certificate in 2012. But most of the

approvals were for far more mundane

items—albeit with significant impor-

tance in the MRO world. Last year’s

sign-ofs included 1,360 for type certifi-

cate new derivatives, major changes or

major repairs. Another 857 were issued

for minor changes or minor repair. By

comparison, only 15 type certificates or

restricted type certificates were issued.

In general, new type design applica-

tions are on the decline, while requests

for major changes and derivatives are

on the rise.

The big-picture numbers suggest

that what was viewed as a temporary

blip in applications has become the

new reality.

In 2008, the agency sorted through

7,283 new applications—a 14% jump

from 2007. By 2009, new certificate ap-

plications were down to 5,582, a figure

that fell about 15% short of projections,

the agency noted in its 2009 annual

review. “This is probably a short-term

trend,” the agency reasoned then. It

issued 4,472 certificates in 2009, or

about 16% more than in 2013.

By 2011, applications were down to

about 5,000, while certificates issued

totaled 3,823. Despite a note that new

projects from emerging markets such

Safety & Regulatory News

MRO40 AVIATION WEEK & SPACE TECHNOLOGY MRO EDITION NOVEMBER 3/10, 2014 AviationWeek.com/mro

MRO Edition

AIRBUS

The A320-family runway overrun

production system, which American

added to its Airbus narrowbodies,

was certified by EASA in 2013.

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