The Uncertain Costs of Modernizing the FAA Civil Aircraft Registry

Over the past several years, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has undertaken a significant transformation of the Civil Aviation Registry. These changes stem from the FAA Reauthorization Act of 2018, which directed the agency to modernize registry practices, digitize aircraft records, and expand secure electronic and remote access to registration services. In response, the FAA began developing the Civil Aviation Registry Electronic Services, better known as CARES, which is now rolling out in phases. The initiative aims to replace the existing Registry infrastructure with a web-based platform intended to serve as the central legal repository of U.S. civil aircraft registration and recordation data.

The goals of CARES are ambitious and forward-looking.  The system is designed to reduce reliance on paper documentation, streamline submissions, and provide the aviation community with real-time access to aircraft records. Users can create secure accounts, upload documents electronically, and pay fees through an online portal. If fully realized, CARES has the potential to improve efficiency not only for the FAA, but also for aircraft owners, lenders, title companies, and aviation counsel who work with the Registry daily.

Although CARES promises meaningful improvements, the transition has introduced significant challenges. The development of CARES has coincided with the removal or alteration of long-standing procedures that users have depended on for decades. Access to critical information has been reduced, and legal support functions historically provided by the FAA have been discontinued. These policies and procedural changes have introduced uncertainty in areas where the aviation marketplace has long relied on stability and precision. As a result, the Registry currently operates in a state that is neither fully modernized nor fully functional.

Temporary Loss of Ancillary Records Access

The first major shift occurred abruptly on December 12, 2022, when the FAA announced it would be restricting access to ancillary records. These documents, which include trust agreements, merger certificates, corporate resolutions, and powers of attorney, are essential to validating authority to register and convey aircraft. Aircraft title professionals have traditionally used these materials to confirm ownership information and ensure that submissions will not be rejected for technical deficiencies. The FAA cited privacy and security concerns, noting that proprietary data and personally identifiable information could be exposed. Yet the lack of advance notice caused immediate disruption, and without timely access to these records, the risk of errors and rejected filings likely increased.

Following industry pressure, the FAA restored access in June of 2023 for approved Public Document Room (PD Room) permit holders who executed nondisclosure agreements. While this addressed immediate concerns, broader uncertainty remains. CARES currently lacks a search function for ancillary records, and the FAA has not confirmed whether access will continue or how it will be managed under the new system. Without clear guidance, Registry users face ongoing questions about the future accessibility and transparency of critical aircraft records.

Discontinuation of ACC Legal Opinions

The FAA made another consequential policy decision on May 5, 2023, when it announced that Aeronautical Center Counsel (ACC) would no longer issue legal opinions relating to aircraft registration. For nearly forty years, these opinions provided essential guidance, confirming compliance in advance of closings for complex ownership structures, particularly for aircraft owned through non-citizen trusts or registered under conditional sales contracts. ACC opinions served as a valuable tool, enabling aviation professionals to secure authoritative determinations in advance of filing and providing assurance that registration documents would be accepted without dispute or delay.

The removal of this resource has likely slowed processing times and raised the risks that the Registry will have to address compliance issues after a transaction closes, when timing and document revisions are far less flexible. While the FAA justified its decision by noting that such opinions were never legally required, the change may simply reflect the practical challenges of integrating ACC’s role into a more modern, digitally driven system.

Elimination of Work-in-Process Visibility

Another longstanding Registry function disappeared after October 31, 2024, when the FAA announced that public access to Work-in-Process (WIP) documents would be removed, marking the most consequential and disruptive change to date. WIP documents consist of instruments submitted to the FAA that have not yet been processed or entered into the official aircraft record. Because review times can lag submissions by several weeks or months, the ability to view newly filed but unrecorded instruments has long been critical for identifying competing filings that might affect title or lien priority.

Historically, WIP review provided an essential safeguard, enabling practitioners to detect potential conflicts before closing and structure transactions accordingly. Without this resource, Registry users must operate with less transparency and greater certainty, leaving transactions exposed to risks and disputes that were once easily avoided.

Electronic Certificates and Original Documents

On January 17, 2025, the FAA published two new rules amending the Federal Aviation Regulations. Although effective upon publication, the FAA’s Registration Branch announced on January 21 that implementation would be delayed until the CARES system is fully operational. The new rules authorize the use of certified true copies in most cases, reducing the need for original signatures. Physical date-stamping of instruments will eventually be replaced by digital timestamps within CARES, aligning filing priority with modern electronic recordation practices. The FAA will also begin issuing electronic aircraft and dealer registration certificates.

These updates promise greater efficiency once CARES is fully implemented. For now, however, the industry faces a transitional period in which regulatory measures have outpaced the Registry’s functional capabilities, creating uncertainty and legal inconsistency in the registration process.

Privacy Redaction Procedures

The most recent change occurred on March 28, 2025, after the FAA announced a new policy allowing private aircraft owners to request redaction of personal information from public-facing FAA websites, including CARES. The initiative implements Section 803 of the FAA Reauthorization Act of 2024, codified at 49 U.S.C. § 44114, which defines personally identifiable information to include an individual’s mailing address, email, telephone number, and the name of an aircraft owner or operator when the owner or operator is an individual.

Although the code appears focused on protecting individual privacy, the FAA’s policy proposal left several critical questions unresolved, including whether the protections apply solely to individuals and how “private aircraft owner” would be interpreted. To support the rollout, the FAA invited public comments, prompting hundreds of submissions. However, before the comment period closed, the FAA began processing redaction requests and has not yet issued a formal response addressing stakeholder questions and requests for clarification. Regardless of legislative intent, the Registration Branch has applied these protections broadly, resulting in the removal of information for aircraft registered to corporations and limited liability companies from FAA websites.

While some aircraft owners have successfully redacted their information, the FAA continues to grant PD Room users full access. The fragility of this compromise is increasingly apparent. The viability of the private redaction option depends on the continued operation of the PD Room and legacy access systems. If these systems are retired, title verification could become substantially more difficult, if not impossible.

Conclusion

The FAA’s modernization efforts through CARES and other initiatives represent a significant technological and procedural shift, with the potential to improve efficiency, streamline workflows, and reduce reliance on paper records. However, the transition has introduced substantial challenges and raised several unanswered questions. By moving aircraft records online, CARES has created new privacy risks that did not exist under the previous Registry framework. In attempting to address these concerns, the FAA has implemented measures that restrict access to critical data and resources, undermining the very efficiency the modernized system was designed to achieve.

The ongoing evolution of the Registry underscores a central challenge for the FAA. Modernization must be accomplished without sacrificing transparency, reliability, and legal certainty on which the aviation marketplace depends. While CARES has the potential to transform aircraft recordkeeping for the better, its current gaps highlight the need for careful planning, robust stakeholder engagement, and a deliberate transition that preserves the functionality, trust, and predictability the aviation community has relied upon for decades.

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