Buying a business jet or helicopter in Australia is exciting — but the paperwork behind that purchase is where deals quietly go wrong. At Skycraft Aviation Solutions we’ve seen the same five compliance traps catch out otherwise careful buyers, often because acquisition and compliance are treated as two separate problems instead of one connected decision. Here’s what to watch for before you sign.
1. Treating maintenance approval as tomorrow’s problem
It’s tempting to sort out where the aircraft will be maintained after settlement. In practice, the aircraft you choose directly dictates the maintenance facility approval you’ll need — whether that’s a CAR30 approval for a simpler, legacy aircraft or a CASR Part 145 Approved Maintenance Organisation (AMO) for a more complex one. Buyers who leave this until after purchase often discover their preferred maintenance provider isn’t approved for the aircraft type, or that securing the right approval takes far longer than expected.
2. Confusing a Certificate of Airworthiness with an Airworthiness Review Certificate
These two documents sound alike but do different jobs. A Certificate of Airworthiness (CofA) is the aircraft’s foundational legal authorisation to operate within Australian jurisdiction; an Airworthiness Review Certificate (ARC) is the ongoing, periodic confirmation that it remains airworthy. New owners frequently assume one covers the other, and only discover the gap when it delays first flight.
3. Underestimating what “Class A” really means
Under CASA’s framework, Class A aircraft — generally larger, pressurised turbine aircraft — carry more stringent oversight and more complex airworthiness management than lighter aircraft. If you’re stepping up from a smaller aircraft or buying your first turbine aircraft, the documentation and oversight requirements are a different order of complexity, and that needs to be priced into your due diligence from day one.
4. Losing continuous airworthiness status mid-import
Importing an aircraft into Australia means managing a jurisdictional transition — and airworthiness status has to be carried through that transition without a gap. Missing paperwork, timing issues, or a mismatch between the exporting country’s records and CASA’s requirements can leave an aircraft technically grounded the moment it lands, even though the purchase itself went smoothly.
5. Treating acquisition and compliance as separate projects
The biggest trap isn’t any single document — it’s structuring the purchase and the compliance work as two unrelated streams handled by two unrelated advisors. Strategic aircraft selection should be informed by maintenance and compliance requirements from the outset, not reconciled with them afterwards. That’s the whole idea behind our “contract to hangar” approach: one team carrying the acquisition logic and the maintenance engineering together, so nothing falls in the gap between them.
None of these traps are unusual — they’re simply what happens when acquisition and compliance are handled separately. If you’re planning your next aircraft or helicopter purchase and want a second set of eyes across both sides of the deal, get in touch with Skycraft Aviation Solutions. We’ll help you get from contract to hangar without the surprises.
