All US Aircraft Must Be Re-Registered: FAA

Over a three year period, the FAA has announced it will terminate the "N number" registrations of all aircraft registered before October 1, 2010 and will require the "re-registration" of each aircraft to retain U.S. civil aircraft status.

A fee of $5 will be collected for each registration and each renewal. The FAA will cancel the N-numbers of aircraft that are not re-registered or renewed, it said.

Moreover, civil aircraft will now have to be re-registered every three years after that, the FAA said. The final rule published this month establishes specific expiration dates over a three-year period for all aircraft registered before Oct. 1, 2010, and requires re-registration of those aircraft according to a specific schedule.

"These improvements will give us more up-to-date registration data and better information about the state of the aviation industry," said FAA Administrator Randy Babbitt. Current regulations require owners to report the sale of an aircraft, the scrapping or destruction of an aircraft, or a change in mailing address, but many owners have not complied with those requirements, the FAA said.

The re-registration of all U.S. civil aircraft by Dec. 31, 2013 will enhance the database with current data derived from recent contact with aircraft owners, the FAA said. Aircraft registrations will be valid for three years and registration certificates will include the expiration date.

More details in the August issue of Pacific Flyer