Speaking at a US conference, Airlines for America (A4A) MD-maintenance and engineering Bob Ireland said that he expects the FAA will allow a five-year “grace period” for full compliance with the its 2010 mandate for aircraft be equipped with Automatic Dependent Surveillance-Broadcast (ADS-B) Out by January 1, 2020.
Ireland said that airlines had been working with FAA to find a solution to logistical problems with equipping thousands of aircraft with ADS-B Out avionics by 2020. A4A has filed a petition with FAA in April to allow airlines to file a plan to FAA detailing how they will achieve full compliance with the ADS-B Out mandate by 2025. He expects this plan for compliance to be approved by the FAA, giving carriers the ability to comply with the rules while it rolls out equipping aircraft with ADS-B Out.
A five-year transition period is necessary after the 2020 deadline, A4A maintains, simply because some 4,800 to 5,800 aircraft need to be equipped with hardware that may not be available by 2020.