What the rule says
Part 43 applies to any "aircraft having a U.S. airworthiness certificate". 3 Within it, § 43.3 says who may perform maintenance and § 43.7 who may approve return to service. Both are closed lists; § 43.7(a) opens "Except as provided in this section and § 43.17, no person, other than the Administrator, may approve an aircraft … for return to service". 1 Everyone it then lists holds an FAA certificate or approval; § 43.7(c) names "the holder of a repair station certificate", who may approve return to service "as provided in Part 145 of this chapter". 1 Section 43.3(e) says the same for performing the work. 4 Neither mentions EASA; the only non-FAA route either names is § 43.17, below. 14
The EASA approval a US shop holds comes from the US–EU bilateral, not from Part 43. Change 10 of the Maintenance Annex Guidance (MAG), in force since 10 October 2025, "details EASA, FAA, and applicant actions required … for an FAA-certificated 14 CFR part 145 repair station primarily located in the United States to be approved to EASA Part-145". 2 A US applicant "must have previously obtained an FAA certificate and OpSpecs" and must show the approval "is necessary for maintaining or altering aeronautical products registered or designed in an EU Member State". 2
What it does not mean
The EASA approval is not redundant: it lets the shop release EU-registered aircraft and parts. The MAG's EASA aircraft release "is acceptable for EU-registered aircraft only", and for component, engine or propeller work EASA "recognizes only the dual release FAA Form 8130-3". 2 The approval does not reach the N-number; the MAG limits the approval "to the scope of work permitted under the current certificate issued by the FAA". 2 A site showing only an EASA number is omitting the certificate that covers N-registered work, not replacing it.
Two other misreadings. EASA's "foreign" Part-145 approvals are for organizations "located outside the EU which are not subject to a bilateral agreement"; US shops "are subject to the Bilateral Aviation Safety Agreement (BASA) and Maintenance Annex Guidance (MAG)". 56 The one non-FAA path in § 43.7(a) is § 43.17, which lets a Transport Canada licensed Aircraft Maintenance Engineer or approved maintenance organization work on "a U.S.-registered aircraft located in Canada" under the US–Canada bilateral. 7 It is conditional, and neither section names another exception. 147
How to check it yourself
On the FAA side, use the AVInfo "Find a Facility" dashboard for repair-station locations, and ask the shop for its Air Agency Certificate and operations specifications, documents the MAG asks applicants to submit. 82 The ratings on the certificate set what the shop may work on; the Part 145 glossary entry lists the rating classes. EASA publishes a filterable, downloadable status list of its Part-145 approvals in the USA, Canada and Brazil. 9 A shop listed in neither has a page problem or a certificate problem.
Why it matters for AI answers
An engine asked this question matches a shop's page against the rule above, so the page should carry both identifiers in HTML text: the FAA repair station certificate number and ratings, and the EASA approval number, each with the registry it covers and a "last confirmed" date. That is the capability-matrix line the MRO article asks for, and the fact an engine can quote about an MRO.