Summary: International standards stipulate that the country of registration assumes primary responsibility for overseeing its aircraft. Several factors, however, limit the Federal Aviation Administration's (FAA) ability to fulfill this requirement for all U.S.-registered planes. Because FAA does not track the leasing of U.S.-registered aircraft among U.S. and foreign carriers and has not developed clear guidance on the frequency of inspection of foreign-operated, U.S.-registered aircraft, it cannot plan and perform timely inspections of aircraft returning to U.S. operation after having been leased to a foreign carrier. Also, because FAA cannot verify whether foreign carriers have FAA-approved maintenance programs for U.S.-registered aircraft and some of the planes operate in countries that fail to meet international standards, U.S. passengers have little assurance that such aircraft are safe to fly on. FAA also has not developed an effective system to track and verify foreign corporations' compliance with a requirement that 60 percent of their U.S.-registered aircraft's flight hours be conducted in the United States--a measure intended to discourage foreign aircraft owners from using the U.S. aircraft registration system as a flag of convenience. Although FAA has had the opportunity to raise aircraft registration fees, FAA has not increased these fees since 1964. As a result, FAA has lost about $6.5 million in additional revenue since 1968.
