Facundo Conforti

Etops Facundo Conforti

On January 16, 2007, the U. S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) issued revised regulatory material relating to the operation of all aircraft on flights with the potential for extended time diversions. As a result, the term ETOPS has been redefined as "Extended Operations" and now includes the operation of all transport aircraft, regardless of the number of engines (except All- Cargo operations of airplanes with more than 2-engines), further than specific threshold times from available enroute diversion airports. The new FAA rules, while still limiting two-engine airplanes to routes that remain within 60 minutes from an Adequate Airport, unless the operator is approved for ETOPS, will now allow two-engine airplanes to be flown on ETOPS routes with diversion times greater than 240 minutes flying time in certain geographic regions. Passenger airplanes with more than two engines will also be required to meet ETOPS requirements under the new rules, whenever they are operated more than 180 minutes from an Adequate Airport. ETOPS Operational Approvals may be granted to operators if the airframe/engine combination being used has been approved for such flights and the operator has established acceptable operations and maintenance programs. FAA Advisory Circulars, AC 120-42B and AC 135-42, provide guidelines for the additional operations, maintenance, reliability and training programs that are required of an FAA ETOPS operator.