Export airworthiness records for an operator AOC transfer

When this review is needed

• An aircraft is being exported to a new operator abroad and the importing authority has issued special conditions.
• The export application depends on status summaries that have to be current and consistent at submission.
• The importing authority requires records the sending program never had to produce.
• The export certificate is on the critical path and a missing condition would hold the whole transfer.

The problem

An export certificate is not granted on the aircraft's history alone; it turns on the importing authority's special requirements, and those requirements often ask for records in a form the sending operator never kept. Every status summary has to line up with the underlying evidence at the exact moment of submission, and any special condition without its supporting document stops the export application cold. The conditions are known in advance, but the records to satisfy them rarely are gathered until the export is underway.

What gets reviewed

• The export application reviewed against the importing authority's stated requirements
• Each special condition matched to the record or summary that satisfies it
• Status summaries checked for currency and consistency at the point of submission
• Supporting records confirmed to exist for every condition the export depends on
• Records the importing authority requires that the sending program never produced identified
• The export evidence package ordered to the importing authority's review sequence

What gets validated

• Each special condition set by the importing authority has a supporting record on file
• Every status summary in the application agrees with the underlying evidence it rests on
• The export application reflects the aircraft's configuration and status at submission
• Records unique to the importing authority's requirements are present and in the required form
• No condition in the package points to a summary without the document behind it

Evidence normally required

• The export application and the importing authority's special requirements
• Status summaries for airworthiness directives, life-limited parts, and configuration
• Supporting records the special conditions rely on
• Prior export or certificate-of-airworthiness documentation for the aircraft
• The importing authority's guidance on the records it expects at export

Common discrepancies

• A special condition with no supporting record assembled to satisfy it
• A status summary in the application that does not match its underlying evidence
• A record the importing authority requires that the sending program never kept
• An export application built on a configuration that has moved on since it was drafted

What is at stake

A special condition left unmet holds the export certificate, and without the export certificate the transfer cannot complete no matter how ready the rest of the records are. Because the export sits at the end of the transfer sequence, a late gap here has no downstream slack, and the aircraft waits on the ground while a single document is chased across a border. That delay carries positioning cost as well as lost availability.

How the work runs

What the buyer receives

• An export evidence map tying each special condition to its supporting record
• A gap list keyed to the unmet conditions and ranked by their hold on the export
• A document request set for the records the export certificate will depend on

Who uses the output

• Asset managers tracking the export as a critical-path item in the transfer
• Continuing-airworthiness staff assembling the package to the importing authority's conditions
• Records leads gathering the supporting documents each special condition requires

How the work fits into the transaction or program

This review sits at the end of the transfer sequence, where the export certificate gates completion. It gets ahead of the importing authority by matching every special condition to its record before submission, so the export application moves without stopping on a document that could have been gathered weeks earlier.

Jurisdiction-specific considerations

Exporting between the FAA and EASA regimes means the sending authority issues against the importing authority's special conditions, and those conditions can call for records neither the aircraft's history nor the sending program routinely holds. The review reads the importing side's requirements first and works backward to the records, so a condition unique to that authority is surfaced before it can hold the certificate.

Regulatory limits

The review reports what the export records support against the importing authority's conditions. It does not issue an export certificate of airworthiness, make an airworthiness determination, grant any approval, and does not replace the sending or importing authority's actions on the export.

What this review does not cover

• Issuing an export certificate of airworthiness
• Physical inspection or survey of the aircraft for export
• Making an airworthiness determination for the importing authority

Specific to this review

• The export certificate turns on the importing authority's special conditions, not the aircraft's history alone, so the conditions have to be read first and the records worked backward from them.
• Because export sits last in the transfer sequence, a single unmet condition has no downstream slack and holds the entire completion.
• Importing authorities routinely ask for records in a form the sending program never kept, which is the most common reason an otherwise complete package stalls.

Sources

Frequently asked questions

Relevant glossary terms

Related pages

Where this fits