FAA ISSUES POLICY STATEMENT REGARDING ADS-B ATC AUTHORIZATIONS
May 9, 2019
On April 2, 2019, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) issued an important policy statement regarding the issuance of air traffic control (ATC) authorizations to carriers seeking permission to operate aircraft that are not equipped with Automatic Dependent Surveillance-Broadcast (ADS-B) Out equipment in covered airspace after January 1, 2020. As you know, January 1, 2020 is the deadline by which aircraft need to be equipped with ADS-B Out equipment for most U.S. operations – unless the carrier filed for an extension prior to August 1, 2018.
As background, FAA issued the ADS-B Out final rule in 2010. The rule requires aircraft flying in controlled U.S. airspace to be equipped with ADS-B avionics that satisfy a set of prescribed performance standards after January 1, 2020. FAA’s recent policy statement does not impose any new requirements on operators or make any changes to the final rule; rather, it merely implements the 2010 rule regarding ATC authorizations.
Specifically, carries seeking permission to operate in airspace covered by the rule with aircraft that are not equipped with ADS-B Out avionics must request and obtain preflight authorization at least one hour before the proposed operation. ATC authorizations will generally be available to carriers that do not routinely operate in controlled U.S. airspace but might need to operate there on rare occasions. FAA’s policy notes that per-operation authorizations are not intended to support routine operations of non-equipped aircraft in covered airspace, and that any such ATC authorizations will be considered on a case-by-case basis and might not be granted in all instances.
The FAA does not expect to issue ATC authorizations for flights conducted by regularly scheduled operators that are trying to fly non-equipped aircraft in controlled airspace. This is because FAA expects any such operators to be taking (or have taken) the steps necessary to equip applicable aircraft, so as to avoid any disruptions to their operations.
A few other takeaways from the policy statement include:
- Carriers that operate non-equipped aircraft in ADS-B airspace without obtaining a preflight authorization will be presumed to be in violation of the regulations and subject to enforcement by the FAA.
- An ATC clearance does not constitute an ATC authorization under the rule.
- If an authorization request is not approved prior to an aircraft’s departure, the carrier should assume the authorization request has been denied, and should not operate the non-compliant aircraft in covered airspace.
- It is highly unlikely that authorizations will be approved for airspace at busy airports where capacity is constrained (e.g., JFK).
- In other cases, authorizations may not be granted due to workload, runway configurations, air traffic flows and weather conditions.
If you have any questions, please contact Evelyn Sahr (esahr@eckertseamans.com or 202-659-6622); Drew Derco (dderco@eckertseamans.com or 202-659-6665), or Alexander Matthews (amatthews@eckertseamans.com or 202-659-6633).
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