The United States Federal Aviation Administration - FAA (NHK, Oklahoma City Will Rogers World) has implemented new data privacy rules which allow private aircraft owners to request the removal of their details from publicly available registers. This implements a provision included in the 2024 Reauthorisation Act funding the agency.
Each request will be published in the Federal Register and open to comment. The FAA said this would allow it to ascertain "whether removing the information would affect the ability of stakeholders to perform necessary functions, such as maintenance, safety checks, and regulatory compliance."
The agency said it is evaluating whether to withhold the ownership information by default in the future, with a new system allowing the owners and operators to download the data.
Meanwhile, Republican Congressman Nick Langworthy introduced a legislative proposal to tighten safety rules applicable to US DOT Part 380 public charter flights. The bipartisan initiative, first proposed in the previous congressional term, proposes increasing the safety requirements for FAA Part 135-certified operators providing Part 380 public charters (i.e. flights with publicly known schedules, seats available for sale, and with nine seats or more sold through charter rather than directly by the operator) to adhere to the same safety standards as Part 121-certified scheduled carriers.
In the waning days of the previous administration of President Joe Biden, the US Department of Transportation tightened safety rules for Part 380 operators, although they are still treated far less strictly than Part 121 scheduled operators.
Last year, the government also signalled its ambition to introduce a new operating authority tailored for the Part 135 operators flying scheduled public charters for Part 380 charterers. The progress of these regulations stalled after the presidential transition.
Part 380 public charter authority is issued to charterers that sell tickets directly to the public and then contract an airline to operate these flights. The current rules allow them to charter any operator, not limited to Part 121 scheduled carriers, even if the charters are operated as de facto scheduled flights. There is no prohibition on the same company having Part 380 public charter authority and a Part 135 commuter or on-demand permit, which effectively allows it to "charter" its own flights. The largest airlines operating in this segment currently include JSX Air (with parent JetSuiteX Inc. holding a Part 380 permit), Contour Airlines (operating for parent Contour Aviation), and SkyWest Charter (operating for SkyWest Airlines).
