Just a few days after the FAA warned that the $500 ADS-B reservations were running out, the agency reported that the last few hundred rebate slots for general aviation operators are now gone. “Fewer than 1,000 rebates remained as of Friday,” the agency warned on May 10. “The rate of rebates being claimed has doubled from about 70 per day to about 150 per day in the last week.”
The agency projected that those rebates would run out by the end of the week, but by the end of Monday, it issued the notice that they were gone. However, the FAA added that should any of the reservations be returned, it would make them available on a first-come, first-served basis.
The FAA offered 20,000 rebates in all since launching the program in September 2016 to encourage owners of fixed-wing, single-piston aircraft to equip with ADS-B Out avionics ahead of the January 1, 2020 deadline. Leaders in the helicopter market had pushed the agency to include helicopters in the rebates but to no avail. Data released earlier this year suggested that rotorcraft equipage lags well behind other categories.