The Federal Aviation Administration has initiated a rulemaking process designed to widen the scope of bilateral agreements through which foreign maintenance organizations receive mutual recognition of their MRO certificates. The move is intended to streamline the approval process for non-U.S. repair stations that already hold certification from their home aviation authority, reducing duplicative oversight costs while maintaining safety standards aligned with FAA requirements.
Currently, maintenance organizations operating under bilateral aviation safety agreements must navigate separate approval tracks in each country -- a process that can add months and significant administrative cost to expanding an MRO's geographic footprint. The proposed framework would allow qualifying organizations to leverage existing home-country certification status as the basis for expedited FAA recognition, opening cross-border service arrangements more efficiently.
The initiative aligns with broader industry growth. Analysts project the global MRO market will reach approximately $97 billion in 2026, up from $91 billion in 2025, driven by rising passenger traffic and an aging global fleet requiring more intensive maintenance cycles. Global passenger revenue is forecast to exceed $1 trillion for the second consecutive year, pushing airlines to expand maintenance capacity and geographic reach simultaneously.
The mutual recognition expansion is expected to benefit regional MRO providers seeking to serve international airline customers without building full FAA-certification infrastructure from scratch.
Source: Aviation Week -- https://aviationweek.com/mro/safety-ops-regulation/faa-broaden-mutual-recognition-mro-approvals