Applications for Approved Maintenance Organisations (Part 145)

Organisations can get approval to carry out maintenance of aircraft and aeronautical products under Part 145 of the Civil Aviation Safety Regulations (CASR).

Part 145 sets out the safety standards and requirements needed for organisation to gain this approval.

Maintenance organisations that hold a Part 145 approval provide services that meet the requirements of:

  • the CASR
  • related legislation
  • the Part 145 Manual of Standards
  • acceptable means of compliance and guidance material (AMC/GM).

This page details the application process to become an approved maintenance organisation (AMO) under Part 145. It applies to:

  • new applicants seeking first-time approval to become an approved maintenance organisation. This may include maintenance of aircraft operating under the CAR 1988 requirements
  • current holders of a CAR 30 certificate of approval who want to transition to an approved maintenance organisation under Part 145.

The following guidance includes relevant exemptions which can benefit current AMO’s as well as new and transitioning applicants.

Relevant exemptions

We have created some legal exemptions to make certain maintenance activities easier to carry out for approved maintenance organisations (AMO). These exemptions may be relevant to your application.

CASA 52/23 – Provision of Specialist Maintenance by a Class D AMO to an Aircraft A rated AMO

This exemption replaces CASA EX60/20. It includes a savings provision to ensure we continue to recognise an existing approval given under CASA EX60/20.

Your organisation may have previously taken advantage of the conditions provided by CASA EX60/20. In this case you will need to update your exposition to refer to the new instrument (CASA EX52/23).

The exemption applies to new or current AMOs for:

  • the aircraft category ‘A’ rating (CAT A AMO) contracting services from Specialist Maintenance Category D1 or D2 rated AMOs
  • specialist maintenance category ‘D1 NDT’ or ‘D2 Welding’ (CAT D1 or D2 AMO) on-wing in support for the (CAT A AMO).

The exemption allows the specialist maintenance AMO to provide contracted maintenance services. It also allows them to issue a specialist maintenance - certificate of release to service under its own approval certificate.

A rating and specialist maintenance D1 NDT or D2 Welding applications

Your application may need relevant requirements depending on the rating.

You must include the relevant requirements within your exposition if:

  • your application proposes to conduct aircraft “A” rating
  • your application proposes to conduct specialist maintenance “D1 NDT or D2 Welding” rating maintenance activities
  • you want to use specialist maintenance activities as contracted maintenance services in accordance with EX60/20.

For more details see the legislative instrument CASA EX52/23 – CRS and SM CRS Document to Cover Specialist Maintenance by a Class D AMO.

Also see the AMC/GM provided by Principle AMO.02 Specialist Maintenance.

Please note: applicable current AMO adopting the CASA EX52/23 instrument must submit a significant change application for approval by us.

Significant change assessment fee waiver

We typically apply a regulatory service fee for any significant change assessment under the Civil Aviation (Fees) Regulations 1995.

We encourage you to submit your application during the exemption period. This benefits both you and CASA as we enter into transitional regulation reforms being applied from the continuing airworthiness projects.

For this reason, we have waived the fee in place for any significant change applications relating to CASA EX 52/23.

Please make sure your covering letter, email or both includes your request to waive the fee to the assessment before you submit your application.

Exemption CASA EX30/23 – Part 145 Exposition (CAR Maintenance Activities)

New and current Part 145 AMOs can benefit from this exemption if they want to either:

  • consolidate Part 145 and CAR 30 certificates if you hold dual approvals
  • undertake CAR maintenance activities.

Include the requirements within your exposition if you propose to undertake CAR 1988 maintenance activities. We must be satisfied that you can meet the requirements specified in the Part 145 Assessor Handbook relating to CAR maintenance activities.

For more details see:

CASA EX03/23 — Authorised Maintenance at Unapproved Locations (Part 145 Organisations) Exemption 2023

Previously, Part 145 AMOs needed to apply to us for approval of each new maintenance facility.

A new exemption removes this requirement.

AMOs can take advantage of the conditions provided by CASA EX03/23. If you use these conditions, you don’t need to seek approval from us if you use your facilities for temporary line maintenance activities.

You still require approval from us as a significant change if you are adding a new permanent maintenance facility.

CASA EX03/23 conditions

Conditions of CASA EX03/23 include the AMO having:

  • appropriate procedures for assessment of new facilities
  • appropriate record keeping procedures.

If an AMO does not already have these approved procedures in their exposition, then they need to submit a significant change application to have new procedures approved. This allows each AMO to have an individual tailored approach that is approved by us accordingly. View exemption CASA EX03/23 on the Federal Register of Legislation website.

How to Apply

Before you complete the application process, please read the requirements for Part 145 approved maintenance organisations.

You can contact us with questions about your application at any stage.

  1. Complete an exposition

    An exposition details how your organisation conducts activities safely by complying with legislation.

    Your exposition must include the requirements set out in:

    We recommend using our sample exposition to help guide how you structure and write your exposition: Sample exposition for Part 145 of CASR

    Safety management system (SMS) manual

    Your application also needs to include an SMS manual. For guidance and tools on preparing and implementing an SMS you can use our SMS resource kit.

    You can find additional information about implementing and preparing your safety management system on our SMS implementation plan page.

  2. Download and complete the application form

    Download Application for CASR Part 145 approval certificate from 145-01 and complete the relevant sections.

  3. Download and complete the nominated personnel form

    Complete the Application for nominated personnel approval application form 4. For details about the positions you must nominate, see as per Paragraph 145.A.30 (a), (b) and (c) of the Part 145 Manual of Standards.

  4. Submit your application

    Make sure your application contains the following documents:

    • application for CASR Part 145 approval certificate form
    • application for nominated personnel approval application form/s
    • exposition – can be one document or a series of documents (see sample exposition and AMC-GM)
    • safety management system manual. This can be a stand-alone document or contained within the exposition
    • all other supporting documents if required.

    Once you have completed all these documents, submit them to us using the details on the form.

    We will send you an email confirming receipt of your application.

  5. Review of your application

    Once we have received your application we will send you a confirmation email. If your application is incomplete, we will contact you.

    We will also provide you with a cost estimate of your application fee.

  6. Pay fees and submit supporting documents

    We base our application fee on an hourly rate. We will calculate the number of hours required to assess your application and provide an estimate. We will also tell you if we need any further supporting documents.

    We will consider any applicable fee waivers and where they are applicable, we will not charge industry fees to transition from existing privileges to their equivalent under the CASR Parts. Fees will apply to applicants seeking new or additional privileges.

    To proceed with your application, you need to:

    • pay the amount noted in the estimate letter
    • provide any further documents.

    We will not assess your application until we have received your payment and supporting documents.

  7. Detailed assessment

    After receiving payment, we carry out a detailed assessment of your application. The assessment is done in accordance with requirements under the:

    • Civil Aviation Act
    • Civil Aviation Regulations 1988
    • Civil Aviation Safety Regulations 1998
    • CASR Part 145 approved maintenance organisation technical assessor handbook.

    We may contact you to arrange a meeting to discuss:

    • assessment time frames
    • the suitability of the exposition and any other supporting documentation/manuals you submitted
    • the qualifications and/or responsibilities of personnel.

  8. Recommendation and approval

    Once we have all the required information and have completed assessing your application, we'll give you a recommendation or approval.

  9. Issue certificate

    If your application is successful, we will send your certificate by email and post.

    We'll also compare our actual hours against our estimate, and let you know if there's any adjustment. If we've spent less time on your application than initially estimated, we'll send you a refund for those hours along with your certificate.

    If you need to pay an additional fee, you must pay any outstanding amount before we send your certificate.

Withdrawal of application

You can withdraw your application in writing at any time. If you withdraw after we have reviewed your application, we will charge you for only the time we have already spent on your assessment.

We will send you an invoice or refund as applicable.

Related rules and publications

Last updated:
31 Aug 2023
Online version available at: https://www.casa.gov.au//aircraft/airworthiness/maintenance-organisations/applications-approved-maintenance-organisations-part-145
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