Just over three years ago the FAA began the process of updating registrations for all U.S. aircraft. The new registrations transitioned from “permanent” registration to requiring registration renewal every three years. One of the goals of this process was to update the list of aircraft that were still active in the U.S. aviation system.
At the end of September 2010, the day before re-registration began, there were 359,942 aircraft on the Civil Aircraft Registry, according to the FAA. At the end of December 2012, the most recent end-of-quarter date, there were 342,937 aircraft on the Registry, a reduction of more than 17,000 tail numbers.
