Aviation Sees Sweeping Changes on Regulatory Front in 2025

In Washington, D.C., 2025 kicked off fast and furious but was headed to the finish line at a near screeching halt. The year brought a multitude of changes on the federal government front, from a turnover in administration to new rules, additional tax incentives, “supercharged” controller hires, and an unprecedented unanimity on air traffic control policy. It also brought a rash of firings, prolonged shutdown, shift against DEI, and quieting on sustainability, at least where the Trump administration has been concerned.

A driver for many of the changes came as the 2024 elections brought in a new administration with Donald Trump returning to the helm as president, as well as with flipped control of the U.S. Senate from the Democratic to the Republican party. With the experience of a previous term as president and the benefit of having a Republican-led Senate, Trump pushed through his cabinet choices at near-record speed.

It also led to an equally swift exodus of many key Washington leaders, including both the FAA administrator and deputy administrator, among many others. This brought the return of Chris Rocheleau, who had been NBAA’s COO, to the FAA as acting administrator and ultimately deputy administrator. Republic Airways CEO Bryan Bedford, in July, had stepped in as the permanent administrator. At the Department of Transportation (DOT), Sean Duffy, a former Wisconsin congressman and more recently co-host of Fox Business' “The Bottom Line,” took the reins as secretary.

Rocheleau and Duffy had their work cut out for them right from the get-go: about a week after Rocheleau had returned to the FAA and the day after Duffy took office, a high-profile crash occurred. On January 29 a U.S. Army Black Hawk collided with a PSA Airlines Bombardier CRJ700 at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport (KDCA), killing 67 people. That immediately shaped the rest of the year.

At the same time, a newly formed organization spearheaded by billionaire Elon Musk, the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), was formed with a mandate to slash government roles. This included most anybody involved in diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts, including at the FAA/DOT, and hundreds who were on “probation”— new hires and those who shifted over to new positions, including members of the Professional Aviation Safety Specialists and the National Air Traffic Controllers Association. These employees received notices without warning from outside the agency that their positions were being terminated. Many ultimately returned to their jobs after the courts got involved, and the heightened concern raised in the aftermath of the KDCA crash somewhat shielded the agency from further cuts.

All the while, Trump was rapid-firing executive orders (EOs), including more than two dozen on his first day. These were among some 50 actions he took immediately, but the number of EOs has since swelled past 200. The immediate ones affecting the FAA involved the elimination of DEI activities, but also a regulatory review that temporarily slowed actions as the FAA evaluated the order.

Dual Mandates

The crash, coupled with ATC, notam, and communications outages, gave Duffy and FAA leaders immediate and urgent dual mandates: press forward on air traffic controller hiring and overhaul the air traffic control (ATC) system.

Duffy tackled the former first, announcing plans in February to “supercharge” hiring. Building on previous efforts to ramp up controller hiring, he worked with FAA officials to streamline the process, increase salaries for incoming candidates, and look outside the U.S. for experienced controllers.

The secretary conceded how difficult the hiring process is during a fireside chat with Aerospace Industries Association CEO Eric Fanning at the Paris Air Show: “It’s amazing how slow [hiring] is and how hard. This is one of the most complicated things we've dealt with—how do we get more controllers?” Duffy also pointed to the various steps that can slow the process, such as getting the physical and awaiting medical reports.

While the target for fiscal 2025 was to cycle 2,000 controller candidates through its Oklahoma City academy, it also needed to deal with the 35% washout rate. The FAA began implementing more creative solutions, such as providing extra support to candidates who are “kind of on the line,” he said.

These efforts began to pay off—the DOT announced in September that it surpassed the 2,000 target and laid out plans to up that to 2,200 hires in 2026 and 8,900 through 2028.

As for ATC modernization, the U.S. entered a unique opportunity in time—a rare alignment between Congress, the White House, and stakeholders across the industry. This came amid a series of ATC facility outages that cropped up throughout the year. “Decades of neglect have left us with an outdated system that is showing its age. Building this new system is an economic and national security necessity, and the time to fix it is now,” Duffy declared in May, unveiling an ambitious plan to build “a brand-new system.”

This means addressing communications, surveillance, automation, and facilities, implementing what could be done as soon as possible and laying out a template for the rest. Plans call for adding fiber, wireless, and satellite technologies at more than 4,600 sites, replacing 618 radars, adding more runway safety equipment, and building six new air traffic control centers, along with replacing towers and Tracons, among other efforts.

The administration is hoping to secure $31 billion for these efforts. Through the “One Big Beautiful” budget reconciliation bill passed in July, Congress set aside a “down payment” of $12.5 billion. What made this unique was not only the large sum handed over right away, but the fact that this plan is not getting bogged down by infighting over how to fund ATC modernization, as has been in the past.

With the exception of a few think tanks, nobody has had the appetite to resurrect ATC privatization battles, including its most ardent supporters. “We have a historic opportunity. We need to change the system,” testified then-Airlines for America president and CEO Nicholas Calio in March (he has since retired).

Citing “woefully obsolescent, unreliable, and inefficient” systems, Calio added, “We all need to act with urgency. We've talked and talked...and very little has changed, at least not much for the better. We're past the inflection point now. It's critical that we put the debates of the past and the inherent political inertia behind us to try to actually all join together to get something done. We want action, not political debate.”

NBAA president and CEO Ed Bolen stressed similar comments before Congress, saying the aviation community is “at a really special point” where money has been furnished, the administration is motivated to move forward, the aviation community is in agreement, and the general public is supportive of such a massive undertaking.

In a step toward that progress, the FAA began initial implementation of its notam system overhaul in September, with full deployment expected before this July. Congress had called on the FAA to finish it a year earlier, but that effort had extended into the new administration. Also, in August, the DOT issued a request for solutions for a prime integrator to orchestrate the overhaul, with that integrator announcement expected shortly thereafter.

But in Washington, the cliché of one step forward, two steps back came into play, and Congress let funding lapse at the end of the federal fiscal year on September 30. The administration deemed a far greater number of FAA employees as essential than in past shutdowns, and Duffy vowed progress would continue on ATC modernization. Even so, 11,000 FAA workers were furloughed, and many FAA activities came to a halt, such as rulemaking and dispute resolution. 

Meanwhile, controllers were expected to continue working—without pay. As such, the ATC system began experiencing rolling controller shortages and delays rippled throughout the system. Duffy noted that new controller students, who continued to train at the FAA Academy in Oklahoma City, began to question their career paths. “I have young air traffic controller students who are now telling me, ‘What the hell am I doing? Why am I going to take this job?’” he noted.

The Roils of Tariffs

Threaded throughout all of this were tariffs that seemed to come and go on a whim. Beginning with Mexico and Canada at 25% and spreading globally, the tariffs swelled and shrank throughout the year. Early on, the threat of the tariffs put a chill in the business aviation market and raised significant concerns about hampering an already constrained supply chain. Research by industry consultant and data specialist Rolland Vincent Associates underscored the distress tariffs placed on the industry: 59% of business jet buyers cited tariff uncertainty as a reason to delay aircraft purchases.

Bombardier initially held off on its full-year guidance, unsure how tariffs would affect the company. Ultimately, the U.S., and then Canada and Mexico in return, opted to exempt aerospace products. But the initial uncertainty was visible.

“We have a number of order discussions stalled around the March time frame,” Bombardier president and CEO Éric Martel had reported to analysts. “Uncertainty caused a short speed bump as everyone involved in transactions slowed down a bit to reassess the situation. As things progress today, we are seeing much better traction and activity.”

Even the red-hot fractional aircraft ownership market felt the impact when first announced. Airshare CEO John Owen told a panel at the JetNet iQ conference in September that there was a drop-off at the beginning of the year. “We saw a huge slowdown in Q1. I think that was all centered around political and economic uncertainty. We all sat around [asking] ‘What's going on?’” he said.

That changed by the second quarter, Owen added. “In April, it's like the switch flipped again and everything was back to normal. It was a scary first quarter, but since then it's back to normal, if not better.”

Slowly, exemptions for aerospace products prevailed, such as those in the EU and in Brazil, for the additional tariffs imposed. But as the year has neared conclusion, tariffs are still an issue in Switzerland, and aircraft products from Brazil still face the baseline 10% U.S. tariff.

Despite all the roils of the changes in Washington and tariffs, progress was made on a couple of significant issues for business aviation. One involved bonus depreciation, which was extended permanently and fully through the One Big Beautiful Bill. That is believed by many in the industry to have already had an impact on aircraft sales.

Another significant move was the FAA’s implementation of new privacy rules in March that enable operators to shield identifiable information from the Aircraft Registry. Congress, in the most recent FAA reauthorization bill, directed the agency to permit private aircraft operators to request that their information be withheld from public dissemination. Under the changes, operators can request through the Civil Aviation Registry Electronic Services to withhold this information from public display on all FAA websites.

The agency requested comments on whether to default to shielding operator information and how removal of the information would affect the ability of stakeholders to perform functions such as regulatory compliance, safety checks, and maintenance.

In its comments, NBAA stressed that the FAA can strike a balance that permits access to the information for legitimate industry uses, while safeguarding sensitive personal data. Other entities, such as legal experts, were concerned that unless the FAA provides some tiered access to registration information, it could upend aircraft transactions and other functions.

Also, on the sustainability front, government momentum slowed under the new administration, backed by a Congress that rolled back green incentives and mandates. However, a blender's tax credit for sustainable fuels did survive in the One Big Beautiful Bill, albeit somewhat scaled back. Also, furthering electric aviation, among myriad EOs was one establishing an Electrical Vertical Takeoff and Landing Integration Pilot Program and calling for expansion of beyond visual line of sight (BVLOS) operations and applications. To that end, the FAA in August released the long-awaited BVLOS enabling proposal.

Additionally, the administration early on approved a sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) refinery loan in Montana, and work involving SAF continues at the Departments of Agriculture, Energy, and Transportation, each with its own niche.

The administration also signaled that it was full speed ahead on supersonic with an EO calling for enabling low-boom supersonic flight over land. That expediency has been the trademark of the current administration—at least until the government shutdown in October.

Bizav Sees Progress, Faces Challenges on Global Stage

While the U.S. provided an eventful year and had a ripple effect globally with tariffs, the international arena created a series of challenges, but also some progress for the business aviation community.

Notably, in March, the French government assessed a new "taxe sur les billets d’avions" levy on business aircraft charter flights from French airports. That levy ranges from €210 to €2,100 ($2,200) per passenger, an increase of up to 300% over earlier rates, according to European Business Aviation Association (EBAA) France chairman Charles Aguettant.

The tax is taking its toll, Aguettant said, telling French financial newspaper Les Echos that traffic volumes for French business aircraft declined by 21.8% in the third quarter. He directly attributed this to the French government's tax on commercial flights, which he said is 30 to 50 times higher for private aircraft passengers than it is for airline passengers.

Also this year, the European Commission (EC) imposed new rules that impose penalties on operators conducting 500 or more flights from European Union (EU) airports each year who can’t prove that they uplifted at least 90% of their required fuel from those locations. EBAA protested the anti-tankering policy, calling it fundamentally unfair and disproportionate.

Reporting requirements began on March 1 for all commercial operations, with penalties for falling short of the required uplift coming in at twice the cost of the fuel. The EC provided two exemptions: uplifts necessary for safety reasons and in cases where it is not feasible to take on fuel at a specific airport. But operators must apply for such exemptions three months in advance—something that EBAA calls unworkable in business aviation. EBAA notes that some airports, such as Mykonos (LGMK) in Greece, only allow business aircraft to stay on the ground for 30 minutes.

Meanwhile, the RefuelEU SAF mandate took effect on January 1, requiring in-scope aircraft operators (those who fly more than 500 flights a year) to upload a 2% SAF blend at designated European airports—generally those with larger volumes of operations—except those in Switzerland.

While seeing obstacles in Europe, there have been rays of encouragement in other regions that had been highly restrictive to business aviation, Saudi Arabia key among them. In May, the Saudi General Authority for Civil Aviation announced it was removing cabotage restrictions on foreign operators, easing access for business aviation charter operations. Vista Global was the first to obtain a Part 129 foreign operator certificate under the change.

Meanwhile, India’s Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) in June rolled out International Civil Aviation Organization-aligned audit reforms, moving from fragmented oversight to integrated, risk-based governance and enabling more standardized licensing to enhance regulatory coherence and attract investment. This is anticipated to facilitate FBO standardization over the next year or two, and the industry hopes it will also encourage further infrastructure development in a still nascent sector.

However, business aviation executives in India continue to push for changes in the 28% importation tax on private aircraft to foster growth.

—Charles Alcock contributed to this article