FAA Mandates

Aircraft owners face deadlines—and difficult decisions.

January 1, 2020—that’s the deadline set by the U.S. FAA for most aircraft to be equipped with position-locating equipment known as ADS-B Out (Automatic Dependent Surveillance—Broadcast Out). ADS-B lets an aircraft determine its position using GPS signals, then broadcasts this data periodically to air traffic control.

At least the ADS-B deadline is more than four years away; another key deadline—for FANS 1/A (Future Air Navigation System) equipment in business jet cockpits—passed on February 1 this year. The FANS requirement currently applies only to jets crossing the North Atlantic in the most preferred/fuel-saving air corridors, but it will apply to an increasing number of other preferred air corridors in the years ahead.

If you’re the owner of an older business jet, these two mandates pose serious questions: What will it cost to upgrade? Should you make the modifications so you can continue using your current aircraft or should you buy a new model that meets the requirements? And if you opt for the latter, should you upgrade your current aircraft anyway, so you can make it more attractive to potential buyers and ask a higher price? The answers to these questions vary from case to case, but the experts do cite a few factors to consider.

The cost of upgrading your airplane with ADS-B and FANS 1/A equipment depends on what make and model you own. “An upgrade of a smaller general aviation aircraft would require a relatively small investment—up to $3,000 to $5,000,” says Andrej Boicisin of FL Technics Jets, a global provider of maintenance, repair and overhaul services for business aviation. “However, upgrading medium and large corporate jets could cost $10,000 to $100,000.”

Compared with the price of a new aircraft, an ADS-B/FANS 1/A retrofit is minuscule. And besides making your jet compliant, it will probably result in a better resale price down the road; especially as the 2020 ADS-B deadline approaches.

At the same time, it may not make sense to invest money in an older aircraft; particularly one that requires a major overhaul to refreshits airframe and engines. 

Avoiding such costs is why a lot of Gulfstream customers “replace their aircraft every five to seven years,” says Steve Cass, a Gulfstream vice president. “This is primarily driven by the desire to keep their aircraft in warranty for lower operating costs and reduced maintenance requirements. Meeting mandates may have a slight influence on whether to purchase a new aircraft but is typically not the primary reason.”

Embraer Executive Jets’ Luciano Froes echoes those comments. “Moving to a new aircraft brings the added benefits of all the new technologies and advancements in avionics, interior design and entertainment as well as extra performance,” says Froes, the Brazilian manufacturer’s senior vice president of market intelligence. “All this, of course, is in addition to the warranty and reliability that come with a new aircraft.”

In the end, the choice between retrofitting and replacing is a number-crunching decision. But one thing is certain: time to make the decision is running out. “Given the number of aircraft this mandate covers, there is a big backlog [of orders for retrofits],” says Ron Walls,a vice president at CIT Business Aircraft Financing. “The closer we get to the drop-dead date, the more operators will be lined up at facilities to accomplish the required installations.”

James Careless is a freelance writer who specializes in aviation topics.