New NBAA Aircraft Onboarding Checklist Resource Now Available

April 7, 2025

The new NBAA Aircraft Onboarding Checklist, developed by the NBAA Maintenance Committee, is now available to help association members coordinate the aircraft onboarding process within their organizations.

Michael Cataldo, senior manager, aircraft maintenance at Cox Enterprises Inc., has been with his flight department for 23 years, and has experienced the onboarding process numerous times in those years.

“Despite all the training aviation professionals receive, aircraft onboarding isn’t a part of it. In our organization, various team members had their own notes for onboarding new aircraft for their respective areas. Consequently, with each new aircraft delivery we found ourselves hunting down individual notes that often left the building when someone retired,” said Cataldo. “Everything we do in aviation involves checklists – why not have one for this?”

View the new NBAA Aircraft Onboarding Checklist.

The NBAA Maintenance Committee gathered its own notes, plus feedback from industry colleagues, to assemble this comprehensive resource. Cataldo said this checklist is a starting point to be used as a guide for developing a unique onboarding plan.

“Individual operators will need to tailor the onboarding plan to satisfy the regulatory requirements and specific needs for their organization, and then department leadership can delegate tasks amongst the team,” said Cataldo.

While the FAA provides a resource to conduct aircraft configuration inspections for Part 135 operations in Advisory Circular (AC) 135-44, the AC focuses only on regulatory requirements.

This new NBAA resource includes cabin setup, subscriptions and more.

“At the end of the day, we are in the customer service business. It is the flight department’s responsibility to deliver an exceptional passenger experience on that first flight,” said Cataldo. “The NBAA Maintenance Committee will modify and expand the checklist over time, likely adding to the cabin setup section.”

Cataldo, representing a Part 91 flight department, along with Andy Kiehl, representing a Part 135 operator, and Johnny Foster, an aircraft broker, will share more expert perspectives on adding an aircraft to your organization at the 2025 NBAA Maintenance Conference.