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Friday, 15 January, 2021

NATA Supports FAA’s New Dynamic Regulatory System, Additional Guidance on CDC Testing Order

January 15, 2021

Dear Aviation Business Professional:

NATA is pleased to see the release of the FAA’s Dynamic Regulatory System (DRS) resource tool, which resulted as a recommendation from the Consistency of Regulatory Interpretation Aviation Rulemaking Committee on which NATA served.

The DRS centralizes information from the FAA’s Flight Standards Information System and Regulatory Guidance System, greatly improving the speed of access to and consistency of valuable aviation regulations and guidance.

The following can be browsed or searched in minutes versus days using a basic or advanced feature within the DRS:

  • More than 2 million regulatory guidance documents
  • Over 65 document types from more than a dozen repositories
  • Links to Codes of Federal Regulations
  • Guidance material from the FAA’s Flight Standards Information System and its Regulatory Guidance System
  • Pending and current versions of documents, along with corresponding revision history

The information contained in the DRS is scheduled to update every 24 hours, and the DRS will continually evolve to include more features and functionality. The Association has always promoted continuous improvement as a key to success in safety management and the DRS will provide a means for achieving this goal throughout the industry.

Additional Guidance on CDC U.S. Arrival Flight Testing Order

Today, NATA and other industry stakeholders participated on an Interagency call, including representatives from the CDC and FAA, to gain further clarity on CDC’s Order imposing COVID-19 entry testing requirements for all air travelers arriving to the United States. The agencies answered a number of our member questions and will subsequently update their FAQs and provide additional guidance on how this order will operate.

New guidance includes:

  • The CDC is the lead agency for this Order’s enforcement, not the CBP
  • Self-testing is permissible with proof of negative result as long as it is a viral test and not an antibody test
  • More detailed guidance will be forthcoming for operations to locations where COVID tests are not easily obtainable. Please contact NATA at covid@nata.aero with information on any airports in unique locations where short-term relief from the testing requirement is needed; we will consolidate these requests and notify the CDC
  • Testing is not required for flights to or from Puerto Rico, Guam, or other US territories to the United States
  • For flights from the U.S. returning to the U.S. within 72 hours, a test taken before departing the U.S. is valid for the return as long as it was taken within the 72-hour timeframe

NATA will remain engaged with the agencies on behalf of our members. If you have any questions, please submit them to covid@nata.aero.


For general press inquiries, contact Shannon Chambers at 703-298-1347 or schambers@nata.aero

The National Air Transportation Association (NATA) has been the voice of aviation business for more than 80 years. Representing nearly 3,700 aviation businesses, NATA’s member companies provide a broad range of services to general aviation, the airlines and the military and NATA serves as the public policy group representing the interests of aviation businesses before Congress and the federal agencies.