A number of Advanced Air Mobility (AAM) aircraft across the world will soon be certified in a unified, streamlined fashion following the publication of a roadmap established between aviation authorities from Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the United Kingdom and the United States.
The Roadmap for Advanced Air Mobility Aircraft Type Certification, which is now available on via the UK Civil Aviation Authority website, was released on 16 June 2025.
The publication claims to ensure safety, drive collaboration, promote technological innovation and looks to simplify the overall certification and validation process for new aircraft types.
The Roadmap was developed collaboratively by representatives from the Australian Civil Aviation Safety Authority (CASA), Transport Canada (TC), the New Zealand Civil Aviation Authority (NZ CAA), the United Kingdom’s Civil Aviation Authority (UK CAA) and the United States Federal Aviation Administration (FAA).
Sophie O’Sullivan, Director of Future of Flight at the UK Civil Aviation Authority, said:This roadmap is part of our work to enable new technology into our skies and support the growth of the UK aerospace industry.
It marks a significant milestone in the evolution of bilateral partnerships to meet the challenges of emerging aviation technology. It allows us to share data, research and safety information while also collaborating and sharing our expertise. While for manufacturers and operators, it aims to reduce the certification burden once aircraft have received a type certificate and allow them faster entry to multiple countries through harmonised airworthiness standards.
By working together, we can ensure that the introduction of AAM aircraft is both safe and efficient, paving the way for the future of urban mobility.
Typically, traditional aircraft are type-certified in the country they were initially designed in via a set of internationally-consistent airworthiness certification standards, with countries themselves then validating the aircraft against those standards before full operation, but with new AAM aircraft, there are regularly new differences in certification standards across the world.
The new Roadmap aims to provide a framework to combine and harmonise these standards in order to streamline validation and accelerate the entry of AAM aircraft into multiple markets.
