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ETSO authorisations - FAQ

General

Organisational approvals

List of approvals/Grandfathered approvals

Changes to ETSO approval

Technical requirements

Validations

Product specific questions

Miscellaneous

General

What is an ETSO approval and where can I find the corresponding regulations?

The ETSO (European Technical Standard Order) authorisation represents one way (and not the only way) to have parts and appliances approved. This is an optional step which ensures that a part or appliance complies with a minimum performance standard. In all cases, the installer must apply for an installation approval on-board the aircraft. He/she can use the ETSO authorisation and he/she complements it to demonstrate that the installation complies with the applicable certification basis for the changed aircraft.
European Technical Standard Order authorisations are covered by Subpart O of Part-21 which is the Annex to Regulation 1702/2003; the regulation and its amendments can be found under Regulation (EC) No. 1702/2003. A list of ETSO standards is published here.

How do I apply for an ETSO approval?

Applications for ETSOA are made on the EASA Form 34. Compliance should be stated through form 35. Applications can be of two types:

  1. An application from an EU organization for the EASA approval of a new ETSOA. This requires that the applicant has at least applied for Alternative Procedures to Design Organisation Approvals (ADOA) and a Production Organisation Approval (POA). APU applications require a DOA.
  2. An application from a non-EU organization for the EASA validation of a non-EU part approval. The application must be made in accordance with any Working Arrangement or Bilateral Agreement. If these are missing the application will be considered as a new ETSOA and the organisational requirements mentioned in paragraph 1. will apply.

Which costs are related to an ETSOA application/approval?

The Fees & Charges of EASA are determined by Commission Regulation (EC) No 593/2007 as amended by Commission Regulation (EC) No 1356/2008; published at fees and charges.
Please consider Article 1 to 14 which are relevant to all kinds of fees & charges. The relevant sections for ETSO applications / approvals in the Annex are:
Part I, table 1: flat fee for new applications (major changes). The flat fee covers a period of 12 months. If the product cannot be certified within 12 months EASA will issue another invoice covering the additional days until the date of approval; see Annex, explanatory note (2).
The current fees (October 2009) are:

Product value > 20.000 € flat fee 2.173,78 €
Product value 2.000 - 20.00 € flat fee 1.061,89 €
Product value < 2.000 € flat fee 530,94 €

Part I, table 2 for derivatives. Only applicable to APUs.
Part I, table 6 for annual fee. Annual fee is only charged when the certified equipment is installed or used in more than 50 aircrafts OR continued airworthiness activities have been carried out for the equipment. Approval holders are asked by EASA once a year to provide an update on their equipment regarding the value of the product and the number of installations. The annual fee for products in the same value category is reduced as specified in the lower section of table 6. Continued airworthiness activities are charged on an hourly basis. Approval holders of non-EU design pay a reduced annual fee.
Part II, point 1 for hourly fee. The current hourly rate (December 2009) is 238,94 €.
Part II, point 2 for tasks which are charged on an hourly basis. For equipment certification the following options could be relevant: validation support, transfer of certificates (i. e. due
to transfer of ownership) and administrative re-issuance of documents (i. e. minor changes that require a revision of the certificate.)
Part V, annual inflation rate: All fees & charges are adapted annually.

Organisational approvals

Is the ETSO approval holder required to hold organisational approvals?

An ETSOA Holder could either hold a POA or be linked through an agreement to an independent POA or produce under the provision of Part 21 Subpart F.
The ETSOA Holder is also required to hold Alternative Procedures to Design Organisation Approval (ADOA). For an APU approval a DOA is mandatory.
The organisational requirements do not apply to applications from third countries that have signed a full bilateral.

List of approvals/Grandfathered approvals

How do I know whether an approval has been grandfathered?

Any part approved or validated by any member state before the establishment of EASA is deemed to be 'Grandfathered' under Regulation 1702/2003 Article 2 (3)(a). We have published a list of JAA approved equipment on the following page.
Unfortunately, there are tens of thousands of these approvals and it has not been possible to put together a database. We normally recommend an enquirer to contact the approval holder and check with them directly whether they have any EU customers. The approval holder should know who his customers have been because he has obligations to maintain continued airworthiness for his modifications. Another option would be to check with the NAA that issued the approval.
In general the following applies for grandfathering:

Approval issued by: Approval date
Before 28 Sept. 2003 Before 01 May 2004 Before 01 June 2005 Before 01 Dec. 2006 Before 01
Jan. 2007
15 old EU member states grandfathered EASA responsibility
10 new EU member states grandfathered validation required EASA responsibility
Norway, Iceland grandfathered validation required EASA responsibility
Switzerland grandfathered EASA responsibility
Bulgaria, Romania grandfathered validation required EASA responsibility

Approvals issued during one of the red marked time periods are not grandfathered and need validation by EASA. EASA approvals and grandfathered approvals are valid in all EU member states as well as Norway, Iceland, Switzerland and Liechtenstein.

How do I know whether my equipment has received EASA approval?

The lists of ETSO and JTSO certified products are available here. There you will also find a list of parachutes under the responsibility of EASA. However please note that this list is complete only with regard to the ETSO approvals and might not contain all JTSO certified equipment.

Changes to ETSO approval

How do I know whether my proposed change is minor?

The ETSO holder can perform minor changes. He has to inform EASA about minor changes. Major changes lead to a new ETSO authorisation. As a general criterion, a change could be classified as "minor" if it doesn't require a complete investigation for assessing the compliance to the requirements. For minor changes to ETSO articles, per Regulation 1702/2003 article 21A.611(a), the root part of the part number is unchanged and the minor change is identified via the "open brackets". Per 21A.603(b), an open bracket system should be proposed to accommodate a series of minor changes to an ETSO product.
NB_1: a minor change must be substantiated anyway; the responsibility is on the ETSOA Holder.
NB_2: substantiation by test doesn't automatically mean that the change is "major".
Examples of minor changes are:

  • Part numbers to be added to the list of approved ones (for example to add open brackets)
  • Merging of companies and new entity (= change of ownership)

An example of a major change would be the use of a revised ETSO standard. Major changes are submitted with EASA application form 34 and considered as a new application.

My company name has changed. Do I have to apply for a re-issuance of the ETSO certificates?

It is up to the approval holder to decide whether they require reissued approvals to reflect the transfer of ownership on the certificates. In case they decide to have the approvals reissued they must file an application with EASA. The task is charged by the working hours needed. In case the approval holder decides to only inform EASA on the transfer of ownership EASA will not reissue old certificates, but change the name of the approval holder for new authorisations, and in the list of authorisation published on its website.

How do I inform EASA about minor changes?

Generally, when changes are minor and do not require a change on the certificate, any method to inform EASA is accepted. This notification should be sent to . It is advised to regularly inform EASA. Notification can be performed by using a summary of changes or the descriptions of changes used by the applicant can be used.
When changes involve a modification to the ETSO authorisation, then it is necessary to submit an application to EASA using form 34. The minor change must be entered in section 2.1 of Form 34.

Technical requirements

Which technical documents are mandatory to receive an ETSO approval?

There is not a generic list; the documents to be submitted are those necessary to show compliance with the specific ETSO.

What is a DDP and what information should it contain?

DDP means Declaration of Design and Performance; it is the central document containing the definition and all relevant references of the equipment. Its informational content could be compared to the one of a Type Certificate Data Sheet for products. A standard form can be found on AMC 21A.608 (ED Decision 2003/1/RM of 17 October 2003, published here).

What other documents are required/advisable?

The following documents are welcome to complete the ETSO data package:

  • the already mentioned statement of compliance (form 35),
  • a description of the part,
  • a compliance check list (i.e. a list of the methods which will be used to show compliance to each single requirement, like test, analysis …),
  • a project time schedule,
  • a matrix/report for the requirements not covered by testing or analysis based on test.

How does EASA handle requests for deviation?

When the product is deviating from the requirements of the applicable ETSO standard the applicant formally needs to request approval of a deviation in accordance with 21A.610 of 1702/2003. On our website we have listed all previously approved and rejected deviations sorted by ETSO standard. If the deviation in question has been approved earlier please indicate so in the corresponding section 3.2 of form 34. If your request is regarding a new deviation you need to send a deviation request to EASA. In any case it is necessary to show how an equivalent level of safety is guaranteed.
The responsible project manager will check this document. Before the final decision is taken the following steps must be completed:

  1. The project manager includes all relevant information in a consultation paper.
  2. The consultation paper is sent to the applicant for verification.
  3. The consultation paper is sent out for internal consultation in accordance with the Management Board decision N° 07-2004.
  4. Taking into account the comments received from this internal consultation, the project manager modifies the consultation paper for public consultation on the EASA website. The commenting period is 3 weeks.
  5. Received comments are collected in a Comment Response Document (CRD) which will be published with the list of approved or rejected comments.
  6. The deviation is accepted or rejected and will be included in the corresponding list. In case of an accepted deviation the certificate is issued once compliance with all applicable requirements is demonstrated.

Validations

How do I as US manufacturer apply for an ETSO approval?

The TSO approval holder must make the application via the FAA Aircraft Certification Office (ACO) that issued the original TSO approval. The ACO must provide a concurrence letter endorsing the compliance with the requested ETSO standard and forward it to EASA. The required technical documents as well as the application form are the same as for EASA member state manufacturers.

How do I as EASA member state organisation apply for a validation of my ETSO approval in a third country?

An ETSO authorisation can be validated in a third country provided there is a bilateral agreement or working arrangement in place; see the list published here. Applications should be made filling the form 41. Based on the bilateral agreement, EASA will carry out the technical investigation on behalf of the foreign authority. EASA will provide you with a quote on how many hours would be needed to perform this technical investigation.
Please note that some foreign authorities have special policies regarding validation; for instance the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) gives lowest priority to validation requests unless the applicant provides an evidence of import to the US market.

Product specific questions

Can my parachute receive an ETSO approval?

Personnel parachutes within the scope of EASA are parachutes for use in case of an emergency. All other parachutes are under the responsibility of the relevant Member States. EASA has published a list of parachute approvals granted by NAAs prior to EASA, which fall under the EASA responsibility. Click here for details.

Can I apply for an ETSO authorisation for articles with embedded military functions?

From an ETSO authorisation perspective, it must be demonstrated that the military embedded functions do not interfere with the CS-ETSO functions. EASA will not investigate the military functions. Moreover, when there are some restrictions regarding access to design data for the military functions, EASA cannot offer any special guarantee for the special access and protection of military data. So far, there has been some case by case arrangements in order to delegate the technical investigation to NAAs which can offer resources that comply with military requirements for special data access and protection.
If the article is designed exclusively for military use, EASA is not legally competent to issue an approval.

Miscellaneous

What is an EASA form 1?

The EASA Form 1 is the Authorised Release Certificate released by a POA holder for stating that a product, a part, or a component was manufactured in accordance with approved/not approved design data. NB: the same for is suitable for Maintenance Organization as well. Exhaustive explanation how to fill the Form 1, can be found in Appendix I of Part 21.

What can I do if I do not need the certificate anymore (surrender of certificates)?

In general the approval needs to be in place for continued airworthiness purposes. Even if your company might have stopped production a long time ago there could still be units in service.
In order to have an ETSO certificate surrendered please send an e-mail request (application form not available) to . State the approval number and the reason for the surrender. You will receive a confirmation e-mail containing the next steps, which are usually:

  • allocation of the surrender exercise to EASA PCM or NAA
  • notification of all ICAO states about the intended surrender
  • analyse the comments of this notification
  • accept or refuse the requested surrender
  • revoke the certificate
  • update the list of EASA products
  • notification of the revocation to the public.

Following this, a PCM would check the issue and if found o.k. we would issue a Certification Information with comment period and following the feedback received, later the final Certification Information. The PCM will also decide if it is necessary to have a comment period or if the issue can go right to the decision and the final certification information. Once the surrender has been decided you will receive a decision letter and you will have to return the original certificate to EASA.
The Certification Information is published on the EASA website on the latest news page and also under the type certificate page.

What is the EASA position on PMA part approvals?

EASA has documented how an approval can be issued by the Agency to an organisation under the regulatory oversight of the FAA for a part designed under their PMA system. Refer to EASA policy in ED Decision 2007/003/C.