This document is an excerpt from the EUR-Lex website
Document 32012R0748
Airworthiness and environmental certification
- Date of last review:
- 15/07/2024
- Initial creation date:
- 04/05/2020
- Summary code:
-
- 32.11.00.00 Air transport
- EUROVOC descriptor:
- Directory code:
-
- 07.40.30.00 Transport policy / Air transport / Air safety
- Summarised document(s):
- Author:
- Publications Office of the European Union
- Responsible entity(ies):
- Directorate-General for Mobility and Transport
Airworthiness and environmental certification
SUMMARY OF:
WHAT IS THE AIM OF THE REGULATIONS?
- Regulation (EU) No 748/2012 lays down common technical requirements and administrative procedures to ensure the airworthiness and environmental certification of aircraft and associated products, parts and appliances, and to ensure that design and production organisations are certified.
- Regulation (EU) No 1321/2014 lays down common technical requirements and administrative procedures to ensure that aircraft (and any component to be installed in and on them) continue to be airworthy.
- Both regulations deal with certificates, approvals, licences, authorisations, attestations or other documents issued as the result of a certification attesting compliance with the applicable requirements. The European Union Aviation Safety Agency, set up under Regulation (EU) 2018/1139, develops certification specifications1 that ensure that common technical requirements are uniformly applied in the field of initial airworthiness2 of aeronautical parts and appliances.
KEY POINTS
Regulation (EU) No 748/2012
Regulation (EU) No 748/2012 lays down rules for the airworthiness and environmental certification of aircraft products, parts and appliances, including conditions for:
- type certificates;
- certificates of airworthiness, permits to fly and authorised release certificates;
- repair design approvals;
- compliance with environmental protection requirements;
- noise certificates;
- identifying products, parts and appliances;
- certifying certain parts and appliances;
- certifying design and production organisations;
- airworthiness directives.
Regulation (EU) No 748/2012 has been amended a number of times. Many of these changes have been incorporated into the consolidated version of the act. Since the publication of the consolidated version in summer 2023, it has been further amended by the following delegated acts.
- Delegated Regulation (EU) 2024/1108 amends Regulation (EU) No 748/2012 as regards the initial airworthiness of unmanned aircraft systems (drones) subject to certification and Delegated Regulation (EU) 2019/945 as regards unmanned aircraft systems and non-EU country operators of unmanned aircraft systems (see summary). Regulation (EU) 2024/1108 will apply from .
- Delegated Regulation (EU) 2022/1645 sets out rules for applying Regulation (EU) 2018/1139 (see above) as regards requirements for managing information security risks with a potential impact on aviation safety for organisations covered by Regulation (EU) No 748/2012. These relate to production and design organisations (other than those solely involved in the design and/or production of ELA2 European light aircraft) and will apply from .
Regulation (EU) No 1321/2014
Regulation (EU) No 1321/2014 sets out technical rules and procedures to ensure that aircraft, including any component for installation in or on them, continue to be airworthy. These rules cover aircraft that are:
- registered in a European Union (EU) Member State, unless their safety oversight has been delegated to a non-EU country and they are not used by an EU operator; or
- registered in a non-EU country and used by an EU operator, where their safety oversight has been delegated to a Member State; or
- registered in a non-EU country for which safety oversight has not been delegated to a Member State and that are dry leased by a licensed air carrier in accordance with Regulation (EC) No 1008/2008 (see summary).
With detailed rules set out in various annexes, the regulation covers requirements and procedures for:
- continuing airworthiness, including rules relating to the relevant oversight organisations designated by Member States;
- maintenance3 organisation approvals;
- certifying staff qualification and licence requirements;
- training organisation approvals, including for basic training, type training, examinations and the ability to issue training certificates.
FROM WHEN DO THE REGULATIONS APPLY?
BACKGROUND
For further information, see:
- Airworthiness directives (European Union Aviation Safety Agency)
- Airworthiness (European Commission).
KEY TERMS
- Certification specifications. Standard means to demonstrate compliance of products or parts with the essential requirements of Regulation (EU) 2018/1139.
- Initial airworthiness. All of the processes ensuring that, at any time in its operating life, an aircraft complies with the airworthiness requirements in force and is in a condition for safe operation.
- Maintenance. Any one or combination of the following activities: overhaul, repair, inspection, replacement, modification or defect rectification of an aircraft or aircraft component, with the exception of pre-flight inspection.
MAIN DOCUMENTS
Commission Regulation (EU) No 748/2012 of laying down implementing rules for the airworthiness and environmental certification of aircraft and related products, parts and appliances, as well as for the certification of design and production organisations (recast) (OJ L 224, , pp. 1–85).
Successive amendments to Regulation (EU) No 748/2012 have been incorporated into the original document. This consolidated version is of documentary value only.
Commission Regulation (EU) No 1321/2014 of on the continuing airworthiness of aircraft and aeronautical products, parts and appliances, and on the approval of organisations and personnel involved in these tasks (OJ L 362, , pp. 1–194).
See consolidated version.
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