US Transportation Secretary Duffy Urges Faster FAA Aircraft Certification to Keep Pace with China
Why It MattersCertification timelines increasingly function as a competitiveness metric, pushing regulators to weigh speed against safety as manufacturers face years-long delays before aircraft can reach customers.
What happened
US Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy called for faster aircraft certification on Wednesday, warning that lengthy approval processes risk discouraging aviation innovation and investment and could leave the United States trailing China. Speaking at a Washington event, Duffy pressed regulators to shorten certification timelines while maintaining safety standards, questioning whether drawn-out processes were deterring manufacturers from developing new aircraft.
The remarks follow a June FAA proposal to modernize certification standards for transport-category aircraft and propulsion systems. The proposed changes would incorporate frequently granted exemptions, special conditions, and equivalent-level-of-safety findings into existing regulations. The FAA expects the revisions to reduce certification costs and administrative delays while maintaining or improving safety. The proposal also aims to align certain US standards more closely with European requirements, building on the agency's earlier Part 25 updates proposal. FAA Administrator Bryan Bedford has separately expressed support for certification reform and disclosed that the agency is working with industry to streamline the process.
The reform push comes amid high-profile certification delays: Boeing's 737 MAX 7 received FAA certification in August after a process lasting more than eight years, while the 777X program remains more than five years behind its original schedule. The June proposal covers transport-category aircraft and propulsion systems and does not revise certification requirements for smaller Part 23 general aviation aircraft. Lawmakers have also advanced separate legislation addressing certification timelines for advanced air mobility aircraft. The FAA's transport-category proposal completed its extended public comment period on September 24, and the agency has not announced a date for a final rule.
Industry impact & what to watch
Duffy's remarks place certification speed alongside safety as an explicit policy priority, framing the FAA's internal rulemaking as part of a broader competitive contest with China's aircraft industry. That framing changes how a technical rulemaking gets read: a proposal about folding exemptions and special conditions into standing regulation becomes, in this telling, a question of whether US manufacturers can bring aircraft to market as fast as rivals abroad.
Certification timelines shape the pace at which manufacturers can commit capital to new programs, because a design that takes the better part of a decade to clear, as with the 737 MAX 7, locks in years of cost and schedule risk before a single unit reaches a customer. Aligning US standards more closely with European requirements is one lever the FAA has proposed to cut that friction without loosening the underlying safety bar.
The proposal's comment period closed on September 24 with no announced date for a final rule, and the measure does not touch Part 23 general aviation aircraft, leaving that segment's timelines untouched for now. Whether Bedford's agency turns political pressure into a published final rule, and how it treats the 777X's continuing delay in the meantime, will indicate whether this push changes outcomes or remains a statement of intent.
