In July 2008, EASA
issued its first Single Production Organisation Approval – and that was to Airbus fixed-wing manufacturing. Helicopters
followed later. That means precisely what
I wrote yesterday, that Airbus is regulated directly by EASA. It will not be directly affected by Brexit. It will remain regulated by EASA even after we leave the EU – the UK operations voluntarily adopting EU law and control in order to work as part of the Airbus conglomerate.
The problem comes with the 215 (or so) production organisations in the UK approved by the
Civil Aviation Authority, many of which will supply Airbus, including GKN engineering which does much of the wing fabrication under contract to Airbus.
Once the UK leaves the EU and becomes a third country, in order to keep supplying Airbus, they must re-apply directly to EASA for approval and until they have gained that approval will no longer be able to deliver parts or assemblies for use in aircraft certified by EASA.
The potential for disruption is obvious, not least as the industry is asserting that parts approved by the CAA currently fitted to such aircraft will invalidate their airworthiness certificates, preventing them being flown until the parts are replaced or revalidated.
As regards new, post-Brexit approvals, it is bound to take EASA a while to deal with the applicants, especially as they cannot actually apply until the UK is a third country. That would suggest that there is bound to be some discontinuity, with Airbus unable to continue manufacturing aircraft for an unspecified period......