Despite the federal holiday, the FAA has agreed to ensure some personnel would be available at the FAA Aircraft Registry on December 31, addressing a key concern of several industry organizations, NBAA reported.
NBAA and the General Aviation Manufacturers Association, working with the International Aircraft Dealers Association and National Aircraft Finance Association, raised concerns with the agency about the potential early closure of the registry could cause significant issues for parties trying to close aircraft deals before year-end.
While the industry has had to grapple with the usual year-end surge in the past and the federal holiday falling on the last day of the year, this year the matter becomes particularly acute with the frenzied aircraft market and the rush for aircraft buyers to claim bonus depreciation.
Aircraft buyers and sellers are going to need every day of the calendar year to finalize aircraft transactions,” said Scott O’Brien, NBAA senior director of public policy and advocacy. “Considering the value of the aircraft, not being able to complete even a small number of transactions in 2021 has a significant impact on a manufacturer’s bottom line.”
GAMA has added that the situation has been exacerbated by supply chain issues pushing back dozens of deliveries to the last week of December.
"With the demand we’re seeing, [a December 31 closure] is an unfortunate set of circumstances,” added Jens Hennig, GAMA v-p of operations. “We know the interests of the customer to have a new aircraft with them before the end of the year for tax planning purposes and we fully appreciate that.”
The associations asked to keep the registry open until 3:30 p.m. on December 30 and provide a “skeleton crew” on the 31st to process documents, NBAA said, adding the FAA agreed to move forward on both requests, at least in part.
The agency will not process documents on December 31, but it will file stamp documents relating to a transfer of ownership. NBAA said the file stamp is considered “the point of perfection” for such transfer. However, NBAA continues to advise that parties needing to fly internationally right after buying an aircraft should plan on closing on or before December 30 so they can obtain a requisite unique authorization code.