The Federal Aviation Association (FAA) recently announced it has created an initiative called the Future of Flight Standards to better serve aviation safety by changing the culture of flight standards. The initiative began in August.
All existing FAA policies will remain, but redundancies will be eliminated and efficiency will be promoted. The agency’s publications and documents will be updated.
The flight standards’ eight regional offices will be replaced with four organizations: air carrier safety assurance, general aviation safety assurance, foundational business, and safety standards. Local offices will receive instructions from the new organizations.
The reorganization will create a more streamlined response to operator requests, the FAA said.
“Part 91 operators have increasingly more contact with local inspectors for a number of reasons, including requesting letters of authorization and other operational requests,” Doug Carr, National Business Aviation Association vice president of regulatory and international affairs, said. “We hope the FAA’s reorganization of the flight standards organization will address industry challenges, such as siloed and inconsistent interpretations of regulations and policies, and result in consistent outcomes for operators across the country.”
No significant changes are expected in regards to the relationships between operators and the FAA local offices, Carr said, but operators need to be aware of the changes.