Federal Register, Volume 75, Number 219, November 15, 2010, Pages 69571-69850 Page: 69,779
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Federal Register/Vol. 75, No. 219/Monday, November 15, 2010 /Rules and Regulations
category airplanes with a maximum
takeoff gross weight greater than 75,000
pounds, operating under 14 CFR part
121 and 129. These requirements will
also apply to all applicants for type
certificates after the effective date of the
rule and operators of those airplanes.
Today's rule does not require that any
maintenance actions be performed to
prevent WFD before an airplane reaches
its LOV. Any maintenance actions
necessary to reach the LOV will be
mandated by airworthiness directives
through separate rulemaking actions, so
their costs are not attributable to this
final rule.
This final rule will not overlap,
duplicate, or conflict with existing
Federal Rules.
We now discuss the changes from the
proposed to the final rule and the reason
the small entity determination in the
Final Regulatory Flexibility Analysis
(FRFA) has changed.
The FAA has made substantial
changes to the WFD NPRM that
significantly reduces costs to both small
and large business entities. We have
eliminated the requirement to evaluate
WFD associated with repairs,
alterations, and modifications of the
baseline airplane structure, except for
those mandated by airworthiness
directives. This change dramatically
reduces the economic impact of the
NPRM's estimated compliance costs to
small entity operators of part 25
airplanes. Also, in our request for
comments, design approval holders
responded by providing estimates of
LOVs for their affected airplanes. In the
NPRM we assumed the LOV will occur
at an airplane's design service goal.
Based on design approval holder
comments LOV, in many cases, occurs
anywhere from 33% to 180% beyond
the design service goal, depending on
the equipment model. An operator can
now operate an airplane well past its
design service goal and not incur the
costs of making the decision to retire or
extend the affected airplane's LOV until
much later in the airplane's life. The
only remaining cost is that we assume
operators will retire their airplanes at
LOV, rather than incurring the cost of
the additional maintenance actions that
may be needed for an extended LOV.
With the scope of the rule reduced, both
in terms of required inspections and in
terms of affected airplanes, the
economic costs of this final rule are
much lower than the costs estimated in
the NPRM and in the initial regulatory
evaluation.
The FAA will now discuss the one
comment received about the InitialIn the responses to the IRFA of the
NPRM, we received a comment from
Lynden Air Cargo. Lynden stated its
L-382G airplanes were not included in
IRFA. The commenter is correct. The
Fleet data services consulted for the
initial regulatory evaluation did not
carry flight utilization data for L-382Gs,
and the FAA was unable to determine
the number of accumulated flight cycles
or flight hours of Lynden's fleet in
comparison to the anticipated LOV for
those airplanes. Because of the lack of
utilization data, Lynden's fleet was not
included in our sample for the IRFA
analysis. Lynden Air Cargo has since
provided the FAA with utilization
information for its L-382G fleet.
Lockheed has provided an updated
anticipated LOV for the L-382G fleet,
based just in hours, and Lynden's entire
fleet is below 80% of the LOV. With the
base hours less than 80% of LOV, and
with the current utilization rates of
these airplanes, they will not reach LOV
in the 20-year analysis time frame.
Therefore the FAA expects no economic
impact to Lynden Air Cargo in the
analysis period for the final rule.
The FAA will now discuss the
methodology used to determine the
number of small entities for which the
final rule will apply. The FAA will also
discuss why the agency considers that
this final rule will not result in a
significant economic impact on
manufacturers of part 25 airplanes.
For aircraft operators and
manufacturers, a small entity is defined
as one with 1,500 or fewer employees.51
Since there are operators that met those
criteria, the FAA conducted an
economic impact assessment to
determine if the rule will have a
significant economic impact on a
substantial number of these operators.
This final rule will become fully
effective in 2010. Although the FAA
forecasts traffic and air carrier fleets to
2030, too many factors are in play to
estimate a future number of small
entities, determine if an operator will
still be in business, or determine
whether that operator will still remain
a small business entity. Therefore the
agency will use the current U.S.
operator's fleet and employment in
order to determine the number and
impact on small business entities this
final rule will affect.
For analysis purposes, the FAA has
divided the small entities that might be
impacted by this final rule into two
major classes, airplane manufacturers
and air carriers.
5113 CFR 121.201, Size Standards Used to DefineSmall Business Concerns, Sector 48-49
Transportation, Subsector 481 Air Transportation.Currently, U.S. part 25 aircraft
manufacturer type certificate holders
include the following:
* The Boeing Company.
* Cessna Aircraft Company (a
subsidiary of Textron Inc.).
* Raytheon Company.
* Gulfstream Aerospace Corporation
(a wholly owned subsidiary of General
Dynamics).
All United States part 25 aircraft
manufacturers exceed the Small
Business Administration small-entity
criteria of 1,500 employees for aircraft
manufacturers.
Air carriers potentially affected by the
final rule include operators engaged in
the following:
* Scheduled air transportation.
* Air courier service.
* Nonscheduled air transportation.
The FAA obtained the number of
U.S.-operated airplanes having a
maximum takeoff gross weight greater
than 75,000 pounds from the OAG
Associates Fleet Database (March 2009).
This database identifies U.S. operators
of affected airplanes by providing
airplane age and flight utilization
statistics. The FAA used the airplane
flight utilization information in the
analysis of small entity operator's
airplanes affected by this WFD final
rule. The FAA obtained annual
operators' revenue and employment
data from current public filings, the
World Aviation Directory, and U.S. DOT
Form 41 schedules.
Companies with greater than 1,500
employees were excluded from further
analysis. Operators in Chapter XI
bankruptcy were also excluded, since
the outcomes of such proceedings are
unknown. Lastly, we excluded all part
25 turbine-powered airplanes with a
maximum takeoff gross weight of 75,000
pounds or less, or with a type certificate
issued before January 1, 1958, because
these airplanes are not affected by the
final rule.
This procedure resulted in a list of
airplanes, operated by U.S. operators
with less than 1,500 employees, with a
gross takeoff weight greater than 75,000
pounds. To this database were added
airplane-specific design service goals,
LOVs, and airplane residual value
fields. The FAA used the design service
goals published in the WFD NPRM and
later updated them based on FAA and
industry input. Manufacturers provided
the LOVs. Airplane residual values were
obtained from the 2009 Avitas Bluebook
of Jet Aircraft and consultations with
industry.
Next follows the discussion of the
number of small entity operators withRegulatory Flexibility Analysis (IRFA).
69779
airplanes affected by the rule, and how
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United States. Office of the Federal Register. Federal Register, Volume 75, Number 219, November 15, 2010, Pages 69571-69850, periodical, November 15, 2010; Washington D.C.. (https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc52800/m1/216/: accessed April 25, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, UNT Digital Library, https://digital.library.unt.edu; crediting UNT Libraries Government Documents Department.