Greenpoint Technologies Receives Saudi GACA Part 145 Repair Station Certificate for Moses Lake Facility

Greenpoint Technologies, a Safran company, has received a Part 145 Repair Station Certificate from the General Authority of Civil Aviation (GACA) of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia for its aircraft modification facility in Moses Lake, Washington. The company announced the certification on Oct. 20. The approval followed a review and on-site audit of the facility, which concluded with zero findings.

GACAR Part 145 sets the regulatory requirements and safety standards for approved repair stations performing aircraft maintenance, preventative maintenance and alterations. Klaus Koester, CEO of Greenpoint Technologies, said the certification is an important milestone and strengthens the company's ability to support clients with maintenance services in line with the requirements of the applicable authorities.

The GACA certificate adds to Greenpoint's existing approvals: European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) Part 145 and U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) Part 145 repair station approvals; a Transport Canada Civil Aviation (TCCA) Bilateral Maintenance Acceptance based on FAA Part 145; a Department of Civil Aviation Aruba Certificate of Acceptance based on EASA Part 145; and approval from the United Arab Emirates' General Civil Aviation Authority (GCAA) under CAR 145. Greenpoint also holds FAA Part 21 manufacturing-related approvals.

Greenpoint provides interior completions, modifications, maintenance and aircraft-on-ground (AOG) support for private clients, governments and Heads-of-State worldwide.

Maintenance and modification work on a given aircraft generally has to be performed by a facility that its registering authority recognizes. A completion center that serves clients across several countries therefore ends up holding a patchwork of approvals, some granted directly, others accepted through bilateral arrangements built on an FAA or EASA base certificate. The GACA certificate is a direct approval from a Gulf authority, added to a list that already includes the UAE's GCAA, and it sits alongside approvals from the U.S., Europe, Canada and Aruba.

For the segment, the pattern is that credentials from home-market regulators are no longer enough on their own. Government and VIP clients in the Gulf region typically want maintenance performed under their own authority's recognition, and a clean on-site audit result is the evidence that a facility can meet that bar. The facility is in Washington state, which means the approval covers work done there rather than at a site in the client's region.

The next concrete marker is what a Saudi-registered aircraft actually does with the approval: whether the first GACA-regulated work is announced at Moses Lake, and which Greenpoint client it comes from.