FAA has second thoughts on Cessna single pilot exemptions

While sales data will not reveal any impact for months, the news is already having an effect on buyer perception, Denise Wilson, president, The Jet Agent tells us. 

When Britain adopted the Gregorian calendar in 1752, Wednesday, September 2nd was followed by Thursday, September 14th. The change was set out as an Act of Parliament two years earlier, but to many it came overnight, in all senses. Payments were delayed, prison releases changed and riots reportedly broke out as crowds chanted: “Give us back our 11 days.”

The FAA probably wasn’t taking inspiration from British political history when it ended single-pilot exemptions for two-pilot Cessna Citation CE-500 series jets, but the impact on owner-operators has been similar. The aircraft affected are the Citation I, Citation II, Citation S/II, Citation Bravo, Citation V, Citation Ultra, Citation Encore and Citation Encore+.

The policy, which took effect on September 28th, will see pilots who relied upon these exemptions have to operate with a second-in-command pilot (SIC). The FAA issued the first single-pilot exemption to Cessna Aircraft Company in 1984.

“The FAA finds that these exemptions do not provide an equivalent level of safety to the regulations and are no longer in the public interest,” said the agency in a notice released on Friday 25th September.

While sales data will not reveal any impact for months, the news is already having an effect on buyer perception, Denise Wilson, president, The Jet Agent tells us. 

“Ultimately, I think this decision will accelerate a market transition that was already occurring,” she says. “It probably will not make every affected Citation obsolete, but for some of the oldest airplanes, eliminating single-pilot operation may remove one of the strongest remaining reasons for an owner-pilot to continue investing in them.”

Wilson (who herself once held a single-pilot exemption on the Citation Encore) took three calls within hours of the announcement from Encore owners inquiring about selling their aircraft. “That’s how important the single-pilot capability is,” she says.

The hit lands on the buyer, not the airplane, Joe Zulueta, president and CEO of Aeronautical Systems tells us. “For more than 40 years, the owner-pilot has been the natural buyer of a Citation II, V, Ultra, Bravo or Encore. That buyer just lost the reason he bought one,” he says.

Zulueta believes the market for these aircraft will shrink to crewed owners and charter operators. A smaller pool of buyers means lower prices and longer time on the market.

“I expect the softest pricing in the oldest, lowest-value airframes, the Citation I and II. On those, a second pilot is a big share of the total cost of owning the airplane,” he says. He has already taken calls from several bankers and an OEM on the subject. 

Zulueta says value increases on certified single-pilot aircraft have already started. “Light jet inventory was already thin. Now every displaced owner-pilot of a legacy Citation is shopping the same short list: the Mustang, M2, CJ series, and the Part 23 Citation 501 and 551,” he says.

The Citation 501 and 551 deserve a careful look, adds Zulueta. These aircraft can still be flown single-pilot when equipped as their flight manual requires. “That makes the paperwork on each individual airplane worth real money now,” he says.

Max Oberbroeckling, sales director at jetAVIVA, whose core market centres on the Cessna 525 series, says he has seen a direct impact. “We already had constrained inventory in the CJ and CJ1 markets, and in just the last week or so we’ve seen aircraft hitting the market at prices we would never have expected,” he tells us.

“Owners in the 525 space are trying to capitalise on the uncertainty over what’s happening in the Part 25 space.”

Wilson estimates the added cost of a SIC at $150,000 per year. She believes some owner-operators will be priced out of the market. Jason Zilberbrand, president, VREF says about 1,200 US aircraft are affected. “The direct operating cost roughly doubled overnight: on our Citation II profile it goes from about $1,800 to more than $3,200 an hour once you add a second pilot to every trip, with the day rates, hotels, per diems, positioning and training,” he tells us. 

Zulueta treats the second pilot as an added cost the aircraft carries for as long as that owner keeps it. “For residual and future values, the effect compounds,” he says. “These are already older airframes, and higher ownership costs pull their retirement forward. I will be steeper on the residual forecast curve for these models until the market tells me otherwise.”

Costs aside the ceasing of exemptions also changes scheduling and “the way you fly”, says Oberbroeckling. “You now have to work around another person’s schedule. You can’t just get in and go.

“From what I’ve seen, that’s been a real issue for owners of legacy Citations already: how they’re going to schedule trips, including trips already on the calendar through to the end of the year. They’re now scrambling to find somebody to fill the role.”

But the bigger issue, Wilson says, centres on training. “To get an SIC trained, it’s three take-offs and landings. So if you’re calling a contract pilot, you really don’t know if the person who claims to be qualified as an SIC in that airplane really knows anything about the airplane at all. If you’re using contract pilots, there’s a lot of time vetting someone to see if they can really be an effective SIC. 

“Think about the person in the left seat. If they’ve had a single-pilot exemption for five, 10, 20 years, they have not trained as a crew member with the person they’re now going to be flying with. I think that is a bigger issue.”

Even if a pause or a partial reversal was actioned by the FAA, Zulueta thinks there will be a permanent impact on values. “Buyers now know these exemptions can disappear overnight, and that risk gets priced in from here on,” he says. 

“Suppose the FAA pauses or narrows the action so compliant operators keep their privileges, as AOPA has asked for. Then I would expect most of the lost value to come back, but not all of it. If the full downturn stands, it means a lasting step down for the owner-flown segment and faster retirement of the oldest airframes.”

Zilberbrand agrees that the impact is lasting. “This is a safety decision, with roughly twice the accident rate over 18 years and two recent fatal accidents in the background. I don’t expect a reversal. If there’s a pause or partial relief, it would slow the decline, but it wouldn’t bring back the single-pilot buyer,” he says. “The market knows the reason the rule changed.”

Wilson says the Citation Ultra is most at threat of accelerated retirement. “I would say that the airplanes that have the best chance of making it out of this with the least amount of value hit would be the newest 500 series airplanes – the Citation Encore Plus, and then the Citation Encore,” she adds. 

The Citation Jet Pilots Association and NBAA have called on the FAA to implement a 90-day pause. Wilson would like to see it actioned, and a comment period opened up. 

“Especially to hear from the Citation Jet Pilots Association about some potential solutions, because my understanding is a lot of what was looked at here related to a high-profile crash, which then led to looking at the oversight of the whole exemption process itself,” she says. “I think, rather than just getting rid of the exemption, solving the problems that have been brought to light at least deserves an opportunity to be explored.”

Oberbroeckling agrees. He says: “It should be a more collaborative effort – making sure everybody is operating safely without leaving people high and dry who didn’t see this coming. A lot of these owners have been operating their aircraft extremely safely for many years. In some instances, they may be safer and more qualified than people flying Part 23 Citations.”

The Gregorian calendar is still observed in Britain. People are largely used to it now, except those waiting for a pay-packet nearly three centuries later.

A view from CJP

“One of the challenges is not only the decision itself,  but it’s the speed at which operators are being forced to adapt,” says Rob Balzano, CEO of the Citation Jet Pilots Owner Pilot Association (CJP).

He was speaking to CJI a week after the FAA ended single-pilot exemptions for two-pilot Cessna Citation CE-500 series jets. It took effect on September 28th just two days after the agency announced the move in a notice on 25th September.

The FAA said it will stop issuing exemptions to Part 61, 141 and 142 training providers for CE-500 variants that require two pilots. It also said it will revoke existing exemptions and rescind single-pilot logbook endorsements.

The FAA argued the exemptions: “do not provide an equivalent level of safety to the regulations and are no longer in the public interest”. The FAA began reviewing the single-pilot exemptions in 2024 and found improper training and falsified designated pilot examiner checks.

The agency’s review cites two fatal crashes behind the decision. One being the Citation S550 in San Diego in May 2025 which claimed six lives and a Citation 550 in North Carolina in December 2025 which killed former NASCAR driver Greg Biffle and his family. Both crashes are being review by the National Transportation Safety Board.

Balzano says the association had asked for more time. “We asked for a reasonable transition period because safety doesn’t improve when operators are forced to make significant operational changes in a matter of days.”

But the suddenness of the move means owner pilots now must change how they fly. “They still need to fly their jets, and now they have to incorporate a second in command (SIC) in the right seat, something many have not done before” he says. “Operators are facing challenges securing qualified SICs, updating insurance requirements, adapting operating procedures, and transitioning to a crew-based operating environment on very short notice”.

But the change isn’t just about adding an SIC but this also brings a culture shift for these aircraft. Balzano says owners are going: “from a single pilot mindset to a crew , where crew resource management (CRM) needs to come into play – this introduces other variables.”

The change has led to CJP members  to quickly consider selling their aircraft or seeing values of their aircraft shift. “The market is still assessing the impact, but we’re already seeing signs that aircraft values and purchasing decisions are being affected.” says Balzano. “There’s certainly a ripple effect that extends well beyond the cockpit,” he says.

Insurance is one of the major changes that owners will have to deal with. “Owners have to get with their insurance underwriter and determine if there needs to be a named SIC on there, what the qualifications are,” says Balzano.

“There’s [also] a loss of operational flexibility,” says Balzano. A lot of the owners bought the jets to fly single-pilot so they can go on missions on a short notice. The changes introduced by the FAA have: “certainly caused disruptions”, he says.

Balzano believes many owner-pilots now face a difficult decision. “For some operators, this becomes a choice between adapting to the new requirements or moving to an aircraft that better aligns with how they want to operate,” he says. Some owners may decide to sell their aircraft, potentially at reduced values, and transition to jets certified for single-pilot operations, while others may pivot to turboprops.

“CJP supports safety improvements, but we believe major operational changes should be data-driven, collaborative, and implemented through a reasonable transition,” he says.

Balzano urges all operators who have been affected to support the advocacy efforts of CJP by becoming a member.