Airmen Certification System

Airmen certification is the process by which airmen, as defined by 49 United States Code (U.S.C.) 44703, submit applications to the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to apply for airmen certificates. In support of this process, the FAA developed two integrated systems to receive, manage, issue, and modify airmen certificates; the web-based Integrated Airman Certification and Rating Application (IACRA) and the Civil Aviation Registry (AVS Registry or Registry Modernization System (RMS)). Both the IACRA and RMS programs are managed by the Flight Standards Service’s Office of Foundational Business, Airmen Certification Branch, AFB-720, in Aviation Safety (AVS). IACRA is the front-end system used by applicants to submit required documentation for certification and registration and serves as a temporary repository until the application information is accepted into the official airmen record maintained in the AVS Registry. The AVS Registry serves as the national repository for airmen certification records and provides the central services necessary for control of these records.  

The FAA is updating this Privacy Impact Assessment (PIA) in accordance with the E- Government Act of 2002, to reflect system changes which address the privacy risks associated with the Airmen Certification business processes and the systems used to support them. Those system changes include: 1) use of multifactor authentication to increase system security, 2) use of new features such as address validation and ability of Aviation Safety Inspectors to edit applications, which increase data integrity, 3) introduction of new data sharing arrangements with other FAA systems, 4) inclusion of new form collecting personally identifiable information (PII) and 5) expanded records retention schedules. This PIA is limited to Airmen Certification processes, systems, and records.