The Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC) has formally recognised AFRA Disassembly Accreditation within a new regulatory pathway for overseas aircraft‑disassembly organisations seeking to supply Used Serviceable Material (USM) into the Chinese aviation market.
The updated Aircraft Disassembly Advisory Circular establishes a structured approval route for qualifying parts recovered from end‑of‑service aircraft and engines outside China. The Circular explicitly names AFRA and identifies the AFRA–CAAC Registry as the compliant overseas registration platform for organisations wishing to supply material into China’s regulated USM supply chain.
The publication follows three years of technical cooperation between CAAC and the Aircraft Fleet Recycling Association (AFRA), beginning with a September 2023 agreement to align aircraft‑disassembly practices and AFRA Best Management Practice (BMP) requirements with CAAC expectations.
China is one of the world’s largest aviation markets and has historically been challenging for overseas USM suppliers due to stringent regulatory, documentation and traceability requirements. The updated Circular provides clarity for aircraft owners, lessors and parts suppliers on the conditions under which material recovered outside China can be prepared for reuse within the Chinese regulated market.
For qualifying overseas organisations, the framework establishes a defined CAAC approval pathway supported by controlled disassembly, documentation, registration and verifiable provenance. Chinese airlines, MROs and other industry users will be able to consult registered provenance information as part of their procurement and technical evaluation processes.
AFRA accreditation provides a recognised qualification route into the CAAC process, while CAAC retains regulatory approval and oversight. The result is a regulator‑endorsed pathway linking compliant overseas disassembly organisations with China’s provenance and traceability requirements — creating access through control rather than by removing it.
The publication represents a major implementation milestone for the CAAC–AFRA Memorandum of Understanding signed in September 2023, translating three years of cooperation into a practical regulatory mechanism for the Chinese aviation supply chain.
AFRA president Brent Webb said: “How an aircraft is disassembled matters. Traceability matters. Quality systems matter. And confidence in the material that returns to service absolutely matters.”
He added: “The revised Advisory Circular creates a pathway for applicable overseas aircraft‑disassembly organisations certified to AFRA’s Best Management Practices to seek approval within the CAAC regulatory framework.”
