FAA streamlines aircraft registration

The rules are the latest steps the agency has taken to repair a badly broken aircraft registration system that caused significant delays in recent years, with a chronic backlog hitting a peak of 190 days in 2022. AOPA, acting on behalf of frustrated members, pressed the FAA for a series of changes to overhaul the system. Congress—responding to AOPA's urgent calls for registration reform—ordered the agency to complete the process in the 2024 FAA reauthorization.  

In one of the two new final rules, the FAA updated aircraft registration regulations to remove the requirement to submit original documents and phase out the practice of date-stamping documents as they are received from applicants. The agency noted that use of electronic systems makes date-stamping paper documents obsolete.

"With these inefficiencies removed, the use of modern technology will enable greater flexibility for the public and the Registry, will reduce document rejection rates, and improve the aircraft registration process," the FAA wrote in the rule.

Another rule published January 17, also with immediate effect, enables the FAA to issue electronic registration certificates to aircraft owners, as well as dealer certificates. The agency prints and issues more than 5,000 certificates each month, all bulk-mailed in "approximately" seven to 10 business days.

The FAA began using the Civil Aviation Registry Electronic Services (CARES) system in 2022, creating a web-based system to record aircraft sales and registrations.

"While the Registry will still accept original documents and materials, the preferred approach is now to submit non-original documents in a form and by a means acceptable to the FAA. For some documents and materials, a photocopy or digital image may be acceptable; for others, a true or certified copy may be required," the agency wrote in the final rule concerning submission of documents.

“AOPA has been working with the FAA on registration renewal timeframes for several years now and this change will indeed help resolve the backlog. We welcome these changes, and the increased capabilities CARES offers,” said AOPA Vice President of Regulatory Affairs Murray Huling.

The agency expects the transition to electronic aircraft registration (full implementation of the CARES system is expected later this year) to result in significant savings to applicants and the agency. The FAA processes 76,440 registration applications annually, rejecting 16,116 of them. Another 25,000 conveyances (aircraft sales or title transfers) are estimated to require $1.50 in postage for each, meaning use of the electronic system should save applicants $152,160. The FAA would save another $82,849 in annual postage related to processing registrations.

"The rule will reduce the wait time for an application by reducing the delay between an applicant submitting materials and the FAA receiving the materials," the FAA wrote. "It also may reduce printing costs by allowing documents to be submitted electronically rather than requiring them to be printed or copied."

The transition away from paper documents is the latest in a series of steps the FAA has taken since 2022 to reduce the backlog and ease the frustration voiced by AOPA. The agency began issuing preemptive 90-day extensions to new owners and hired additional staff in 2022, and in 2023 extended the duration of aircraft registration certificates to seven years.