The Extended-range Twin-engine Operations Performance Standards (ETOPS) () are safety standards set by the

International Civil Aviation Organization The International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO ) is a specialized agency of the United Nations that coordinates the principles and techniques of international air navigation, and fosters the planning and development of international sch ...

(ICAO) for

twin-engine A twinjet or twin-engine jet is a jet aircraft powered by two engines. A twinjet is able to fly well enough to land with a single working engine, making it safer than a single-engine aircraft in the event of failure of an engine. Fuel efficien ...

commercial passenger aircraft operations. They are a safety measure intended to ensure that in the event of a single engine failure, an aircraft will still be able to reach a diversion airport using the remaining operational engine. This may be at a reduced speed and/or height, and usually applies to flights over water or remote lands, typically routes previously restricted to three- and four-engine aircraft.

History

Lufthansa Boeing 747-8I D-ABYT - 31884065307

In 1936, the predecessor to the

Federal Aviation Administration The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) is a Federal government of the United States, U.S. federal government agency within the United States Department of Transportation, U.S. Department of Transportation that regulates civil aviation in t ...

(FAA), the U.S. Bureau of Air Commerce, restricted commercial operations within United States airspace to within of an adequate airport. For many aircraft of that era this meant about 60 minutes with one engine inoperative. In 1953, with

piston engine A reciprocating engine, more often known as a piston engine, is a heat engine that uses one or more Reciprocating motion, reciprocating pistons to convert high temperature and high pressure into a Circular motion, rotating motion. This article ...

reliability and aircraft performance improved, U.S. authorities introduced a "60-minute rule", restricting twin-engine aircraft to a 60-minute diversion area (at single-engine cruise speed). There was some additional flexibility beyond this limit with special approval. Meanwhile, the

(ICAO) recommended a 90-minute diversion time for all aircraft, which was adopted by many regulatory authorities and airlines outside the US. During the 1950s,

Pan Am Pan American World Airways, originally founded as Pan American Airways and more commonly known as Pan Am, was an airline that was the principal and largest international air carrier and unofficial overseas flag carrier of the United States for ...

twin-engine

Convair 240 The Convair CV-240 is an American airliner that Convair manufactured from 1947 to 1954, initially as a possible replacement for the ubiquitous Douglas DC-3. Featuring a more modern design with cabin pressurization, the 240 series made some inroa ...

s flew across the Caribbean from Barranquilla, Colombia to

Kingston, Jamaica Kingston is the Capital (political), capital and largest city of Jamaica, located on the southeastern coast of the island. It faces a natural harbour protected by the Palisadoes, a long spit (landform), sand spit which connects the town of Por ...

, Avensa Convair 340s flew from Maracaibo, Venezuela to Montego Bay, Jamaica, KLM

Douglas DC-3 The Douglas DC-3 is a propeller-driven airliner manufactured by the Douglas Aircraft Company, which had a lasting effect on the airline industry in the 1930s to 1940s and World War II. It was developed as a larger, improved 14-bed sleeper ...

s flew Curacao to Ciudad Trujillo while KLM Convairs flew

Aruba Aruba, officially the Country of Aruba, is a constituent island country within the Kingdom of the Netherlands, in the southern Caribbean Sea north of the Venezuelan peninsula of Paraguaná Peninsula, Paraguaná and northwest of Curaçao. In 19 ...

to Kingston with

Delta Air Lines Delta Air Lines, Inc. is a Major airlines of the United States, major airline in the United States headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia, operating nine hubs, with Hartsfield–Jackson Atlanta International Airport being its ...

operating Convair 340 flights nonstop between

New Orleans New Orleans (commonly known as NOLA or The Big Easy among other nicknames) is a Consolidated city-county, consolidated city-parish located along the Mississippi River in the U.S. state of Louisiana. With a population of 383,997 at the 2020 ...

and

Havana Havana (; ) is the capital and largest city of Cuba. The heart of La Habana Province, Havana is the country's main port and commercial center.Port au Prince – Ciudad Trujillo –

San Juan, Puerto Rico San Juan ( , ; Spanish for "Saint John the Baptist, John") is the capital city and most populous Municipalities of Puerto Rico, municipality in the Commonwealth (U.S. insular area), Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, an unincorporated territory of the ...

. In 1948–52 New Zealand National Airways Corporation scheduled a DC-3 to fly from Apia (Western Samoa) to Aitutaki, a -hour flight covering 685 airportless nautical miles between Tafuna (Pago Pago) and Aitutaki. In 1963 Polynesian Airlines started flying a Percival Prince Apia to Aitutaki; in 1964 the flight was a DC-3 from Faleolo (Upolu) to Aitutaki, a distance of . More recently, the January 1979 OAG showed a weekly Polynesian Airlines HS748 from Niue to Rarotonga, with no airport. In 2017 ICAO issued

Standards and Recommended Practices Standards And Recommended Practices (SARPs) are technical specifications adopted by the Council of the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) in accordance with Article 37 of the Convention on International Civil Aviation in order to achi ...

(SARPS) for ETOPS, and ETOPS were extended to four-engine aircraft like the

Boeing 747-8 The Boeing 747-8 is the final series of the large, long-range wide-body airliners in the Boeing 747 family from Boeing Commercial Airplanes. It is the largest model variant of the 747 and Boeing's largest aircraft overall. Following the intro ...

and the terminology updated to EDTO (Extended Diversion Time Operations).

Early jet airliners

While the earliest jet engines were sometimes unreliable, widespread use of later engines such as the

Pratt & Whitney JT8D The Pratt & Whitney JT8D is a low-bypass (0.96 to 1) turbofan engine introduced by Pratt & Whitney in February 1963 with the inaugural flight of the Boeing 727. It was a modification of the Pratt & Whitney J52 turbojet engine which powered the ...

(e.g.

McDonnell Douglas DC-9 The McDonnell Douglas DC-9 is an American five-abreast, single-aisle aircraft designed by the Douglas Aircraft Company. It was initially produced as the Douglas DC-9 prior to August 1967, after which point the company had merged with McDonnell ...

and

Boeing 737 The Boeing 737 is an American narrow-body aircraft, narrow-body aircraft produced by Boeing at its Boeing Renton Factory, Renton factory in Washington (state), Washington. Developed to supplement the Boeing 727 on short and thin routes, the t ...

) led to major advances in reliability and safety. As jet engines started to deliver more power than piston engines while increasing reliability, aircraft whose size previously required four piston engines could now be built using only two jet engines. By the late 1960s, most large civil airliners were jet-powered, relegating the piston engine to roles such as cargo flights. With the JT8D reliably powering the three-engine

Boeing 727 The Boeing 727 is an American Narrow-body aircraft, narrow-body airliner that was developed and produced by Boeing Commercial Airplanes. After the heavier Boeing 707, 707 quad-jet was introduced in 1958, Boeing addressed the demand for shorter ...

, the 60-minute rule was waived in 1964 for three-engine aircraft, which in turn opened the way for the development of

wide-body A wide-body aircraft, also known as a twin-aisle aircraft and in the largest cases as a jumbo jet, is an airliner with a fuselage wide enough to accommodate two passenger aisles with seven or more seats abreast. The typical fuselage diameter is . ...

, intercontinental

trijet A trijet is a jet aircraft powered by three jet engines. In general, passenger airline trijets are considered to be second-generation jet airliners, due to their innovative engine locations, in addition to the advancement of turbofan technology. ...

s such as the

Lockheed L-1011 TriStar The Lockheed L-1011 TriStar (pronounced "El-ten-eleven") is an American medium-to-long-range, wide-body trijet airliner built by the Lockheed Corporation. It was the third wide-body airliner to enter commercial operations, after the Boeing 747 ...

and

McDonnell Douglas DC-10 The McDonnell Douglas DC-10 is an American trijet wide-body aircraft manufactured by McDonnell Douglas. The DC-10 was intended to succeed the Douglas DC-8, DC-8 for long-Range (aeronautics), range flights. It first flew on August 29, 1970; i ...

. By then, only twin-engine jets were restricted by the 60-minute rule. Trijets and quadjets dominated international long-haul flights until the late 1980s.

Early ETOPS

Airbus A300 The Airbus A300 is Airbus' first production aircraft and the world's first Twinjet, twin-engine, double-aisle Wide-body aircraft, (wide-body) airliner. It was developed by ''Airbus Industrie GIE'', now merged into Airbus SE, and manufactured f ...

twinjets, the first twin-engine wide-body aircraft, had been flying across the North Atlantic, the Bay of Bengal, and the Indian Ocean under a 90-minute ICAO rule since 1976. When the FAA director J. Lynn Helms in 1980 was approached about the possibility of an exemption, his response was "It'll be a cold day in hell before I let twins fly long haul, overwater routes." The Boeing 767-200ER entered service in 1984. In 1985, the FAA increased the ETOPS to 120 minutes at the single-engine cruise speed.

Trans World Airlines Trans World Airlines (TWA) was a major airline in the United States that operated from 1930 until it was acquired by American Airlines in 2001. It was formed as Transcontinental & Western Air to operate a route from New York City to Los Angeles ...

operated the first 120-minute ETOPS (ETOPS-120) service on February 1, 1985, with a

Boeing 767 The Boeing 767 is an American wide-body airliner developed and manufactured by Boeing Commercial Airplanes. The aircraft was launched as the 7X7 program on July 14, 1978, the prototype first flew on September 26, 1981, and it was certified ...

-200 from Boston to Paris. The 767 burned less fuel per hour than a

on the same route, prompting TWA to spend $2.6 million on each 767 they owned to retrofit them to ETOPS-120 specs. It was followed by

Singapore Airlines Singapore Airlines (abbreviation: SIA or SQ) is the flag carrier of Singapore with its Airline hub, hub located at Changi Airport. Considered to be one of the world's best carriers, the airline is ranked as a 5-star airline as well as ranked ...

in June with an

Airbus A310 The Airbus A310 is a wide-body aircraft, Aircraft design process, designed and manufactured by Airbus Industrie GIE, then a consortium of European aerospace manufacturers. Airbus had identified a demand for an aircraft smaller than the Airbus ...

. In April 1986,

inaugurated transatlantic revenue service using A310s, and within five years Airbus ETOPS operators numbered more than 20.

ETOPS 180

Air Canada Boeing 767-300ER with CF6-80 engines

In 1988, the FAA amended the ETOPS regulation to allow the extension to a 180-minute diversion period, subject to stringent technical and operational qualifications. ETOPS-180 and ETOPS-207 cover about 95% of the Earth. The first such flight was conducted in 1989. This set of regulations was subsequently adopted by the JAA, ICAO, and other regulatory bodies.

ETOPS 180 at introduction

The original 1985 regulations allowed an airliner to have ETOPS-120 rating on entry into service. ETOPS-180 was only possible after one year of trouble-free 120-minute ETOPS experience. In 1990 Boeing convinced the FAA that it could deliver an airliner with ETOPS-180 on its entry into service. This process was called Early ETOPS. The Boeing 777 was the first aircraft to be introduced with an ETOPS rating of 180 minutes. In the 1990s, the Joint Aviation Authorities (JAA) demurred, and the

Boeing 777 The Boeing 777, commonly referred to as the Triple Seven, is an American long-range wide-body airliner developed and manufactured by Boeing Commercial Airplanes. The 777 is the world's largest twinjet and the most-built wide-body airliner. ...

was rated ETOPS-120 on its entry into service in Europe. European airlines operating the 777 had to demonstrate one year of trouble-free 120-minute ETOPS experience before obtaining 180-minute ETOPS for the 777.

Beyond ETOPS-180

Effective February 15, 2007, the FAA ruled that US-registered twin-engine airplane operators can fly more than 180-minute ETOPS to the design limit of the aircraft. In November 2009, the

Airbus A330 The Airbus A330 is a wide-body airliner developed and produced by Airbus. Airbus began developing larger A300 derivatives in the mid–1970s, giving rise to the A330 twinjet as well as the Airbus A340 quadjet, and launched both designs along ...

became the first aircraft to receive ETOPS-240 approval, which has since been offered by Airbus as an option. ETOPS-240 and beyond are now permitted on a case-by-case basis, with regulatory bodies in the United States, Australia, and New Zealand adopting said regulatory extension. Authority is only granted to operators of two-engine airplanes between specific city pairs. The certificate holder must have been operating at 180-minute or greater ETOPS authority for at least 24 consecutive months, of which at least 12 consecutive months must be at 240-minute ETOPS authority with the airplane-engine combination in the application. On December 12, 2011, Boeing received type-design approval from the FAA for up to 330-minute extended operations for its

series, all equipped with GE engines, and with

Rolls-Royce Rolls-Royce (always hyphenated) may refer to: * Rolls-Royce Limited, a British manufacturer of cars and later aero engines, founded in 1906, now defunct Automobiles * Rolls-Royce Motor Cars, the current car manufacturing company incorporated in ...

and

Pratt & Whitney Pratt & Whitney is an American aerospace manufacturer with global service operations. It is a subsidiary of RTX Corporation (formerly Raytheon Technologies). Pratt & Whitney's aircraft engines are widely used in both civil aviation (especially ...

engines expected to follow. The first ETOPS-330 flight took place on December 1, 2015, with

Air New Zealand Air New Zealand Limited () is the flag carrier of New Zealand. Based in Auckland, the airline operates scheduled passenger flights to 20 domestic and 28 international destinations in 18 countries, primarily within the Pacific Rim. The airline h ...

connecting

Auckland Auckland ( ; ) is a large metropolitan city in the North Island of New Zealand. It has an urban population of about It is located in the greater Auckland Region, the area governed by Auckland Council, which includes outlying rural areas and ...

Buenos Aires Buenos Aires, controlled by the government of the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires, is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Argentina. It is located on the southwest of the Río de la Plata. Buenos Aires is classified as an Alpha− glob ...

on a 777-200ER. On May 28, 2014, the

Boeing 787 The Boeing 787 Dreamliner is an American wide-body airliner developed and manufactured by Boeing Commercial Airplanes. After dropping its unconventional Sonic Cruiser project, Boeing announced the conventional 7E7 on January 29, 2003, wh ...

received its ETOPS-330 certificate from the FAA, enabling LAN Airlines (now known as LATAM Airlines) to switch to the 787 from the A340 on their Santiago–Auckland–Sydney service a year later. Until the rule change in North America and Oceania, several commercial airline routes were still economically off-limits to twinjets because of ETOPS regulations, unless the route was specifically conducted as indivertible. There were routes traversing the Southern hemisphere, e.g., South Pacific (e.g.,

Sydney Sydney is the capital city of the States and territories of Australia, state of New South Wales and the List of cities in Australia by population, most populous city in Australia. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Syd ...

–

Santiago Santiago (, ; ), also known as Santiago de Chile (), is the capital and largest city of Chile and one of the largest cities in the Americas. It is located in the country's central valley and is the center of the Santiago Metropolitan Regi ...

, one of the longest over-the-sea distances flown by a commercial airline), South Atlantic (e.g.,

Johannesburg Johannesburg ( , , ; Zulu language, Zulu and Xhosa language, Xhosa: eGoli ) (colloquially known as Jozi, Joburg, Jo'burg or "The City of Gold") is the most populous city in South Africa. With 5,538,596 people in the City of Johannesburg alon ...

–

São Paulo São Paulo (; ; Portuguese for 'Paul the Apostle, Saint Paul') is the capital of the São Paulo (state), state of São Paulo, as well as the List of cities in Brazil by population, most populous city in Brazil, the List of largest cities in the ...

), Southern Indian Ocean (e.g.,

Perth Perth () is the list of Australian capital cities, capital city of Western Australia. It is the list of cities in Australia by population, fourth-most-populous city in Australia, with a population of over 2.3 million within Greater Perth . The ...

–

), and

Antarctica Antarctica () is Earth's southernmost and least-populated continent. Situated almost entirely south of the Antarctic Circle and surrounded by the Southern Ocean (also known as the Antarctic Ocean), it contains the geographic South Pole. ...

. Before the introduction of the Airbus A350 XWB in 2014, regulations in North America and Europe permitted up to 180-minute ETOPS at entry. The A350 XWB was first to receive an ETOPS-370 prior to entry into service by European authorities. The A350 XWB's current ETOPS certification covers 99.7% of the Earth's entire surface, allowing point-to-point travel anywhere in the world except directly over the

South Pole The South Pole, also known as the Geographic South Pole or Terrestrial South Pole, is the point in the Southern Hemisphere where the Earth's rotation, Earth's axis of rotation meets its surface. It is called the True South Pole to distinguish ...

. Meanwhile, the first time that ETOPS-330 approval was given to a four-engine aircraft was in February 2015, to the Boeing 747-8 Intercontinental. It is the only ETOPS-compliant aircraft allowed to run non-stop overflights over Antarctica with proper alternates, alongside the

Airbus A340 The Airbus A340 is a long-haul, long-range, wide-body passenger airliner that was developed and produced by Airbus. In the mid-1970s, Airbus conceived several derivatives of the Airbus A300, A300, its first airliner, and developed the A340 qu ...

and A380.

Usage

The

North Atlantic Tracks The North Atlantic Tracks, officially titled the North Atlantic Organised Track System (NAT-OTS), are a structured set of transatlantic flight routes that stretch from eastern North America to western Europe across the Atlantic Ocean, within th ...

are the most heavily used oceanic routes in the world, and are largely covered by ETOPS 120-minute rules, thereby removing the necessity of using 180-minute rules. However, North Atlantic diversion airports are subject to adverse weather conditions that affect their availability for use. As a result, the JAA and FAA have given 15% extension to the 120-minute rules to deal with such contingencies, resulting to ETOPS-138 (i.e. 138 minutes) to allow ETOPS flights with such airports closed. By the mid-2010s, virtually all North Atlantic plane routes were dominated by twin-engine aircraft. During the

Cold War The Cold War was a period of global Geopolitics, geopolitical rivalry between the United States (US) and the Soviet Union (USSR) and their respective allies, the capitalist Western Bloc and communist Eastern Bloc, which lasted from 1947 unt ...

, routes between Europe and East Asia were prohibited from flying over

Soviet Union The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. With population of China, a population exceeding 1.4 billion, it is the list of countries by population (United Nations), second-most populous country after ...

since both airspaces were previously heavily military-controlled. Virtually all flights between Europe and East Asia flew over the United States, often with a tank stop in

Anchorage Anchorage, officially the Municipality of Anchorage, is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Alaska. With a population of 291,247 at the 2020 census, it contains nearly 40 percent of the state's population. The Anchorage metropolita ...

Alaska Alaska ( ) is a non-contiguous U.S. state on the northwest extremity of North America. Part of the Western United States region, it is one of the two non-contiguous U.S. states, alongside Hawaii. Alaska is also considered to be the north ...

. They flew near the

North Pole The North Pole, also known as the Geographic North Pole or Terrestrial North Pole, is the point in the Northern Hemisphere where the Earth's rotation, Earth's axis of rotation meets its surface. It is called the True North Pole to distingu ...

with a very large distance to usable airports, for which only three- and four-engine wide-body aircraft were permitted for safety reasons by international aviation authorities. Some flights between Europe and Oceania still largely pass through stopovers in Asia (either in the

Middle East The Middle East (term originally coined in English language) is a geopolitical region encompassing the Arabian Peninsula, the Levant, Turkey, Egypt, Iran, and Iraq. The term came into widespread usage by the United Kingdom and western Eur ...

Southeast Asia Southeast Asia is the geographical United Nations geoscheme for Asia#South-eastern Asia, southeastern region of Asia, consisting of the regions that are situated south of China, east of the Indian subcontinent, and northwest of the Mainland Au ...

) or North America (either in

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its Provinces and territories of Canada, ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, making it the world's List of coun ...

or the U.S.) given the current aircraft range restrictions and, in the case of the early and mid-2020s, the reinstatement of selected routes by airlines between the

Western Hemisphere The Western Hemisphere is the half of the planet Earth that lies west of the Prime Meridian (which crosses Greenwich, London, United Kingdom) and east of the 180th meridian.- The other half is called the Eastern Hemisphere. Geopolitically, ...

and

Eastern Hemisphere The Eastern Hemisphere is the half of the planet Earth which is east of the prime meridian (which crosses Greenwich, London, United Kingdom) and west of the antimeridian (which crosses the Pacific Ocean and relatively little land from pole to p ...

bypassing Russia due to its ongoing war with Ukraine. For decades,

narrow-body aircraft A narrow-body aircraft or single-aisle aircraft is an airliner arranged along a single aisle, permitting up to 6-abreast seating in a cabin less than in width. In contrast, a wide-body aircraft is a larger airliner usually configured with m ...

like the

Airbus A320 The Airbus A320 family is a series of narrow-body airliners developed and produced by Airbus. The A320 was launched in March 1984, Maiden flight, first flew on 22 February 1987, and was introduced in April 1988 by Air France. The first membe ...

series, and the

series and 757 have continuously operated flights as approved for ETOPS operation, alongside earlier

wide-body aircraft A wide-body aircraft, also known as a twin-aisle aircraft and in the largest cases as a jumbo jet, is an airliner with a fuselage wide enough to accommodate two passenger aisles with seven or more seats abreast. The typical fuselage diameter is ...

such as the A300 and A310, and

. The success of ETOPS aircraft like A300 and Boeing 767 made the intercontinental

trijets A trijet is a jet aircraft powered by three jet engines. In general, passenger airline trijets are considered to be second-generation jet airliners, due to their innovative engine locations, in addition to the advancement of turbofan technolo ...

obsolete for passenger use, production of which was largely ended by the late 2000s with Boeing cancelling the

McDonnell Douglas MD-11 The McDonnell Douglas MD-11 is an American trijet wide-body aircraft, wide-body airliner manufactured by American manufacturer McDonnell Douglas (MDC) and later by Boeing. Following McDonnell Douglas DC-10, DC-10 development studies, the MD-11 ...

program in the same period. The rules have also allowed American legacy carriers (

United Airlines United Airlines, Inc. is a Major airlines of the United States, major airline in the United States headquartered in Chicago, Chicago, Illinois that operates an extensive domestic and international route network across the United States and six ...

and

in particular) to use the Boeing 757 on "long and thin" transatlantic routes between their major hubs and secondary European cities that cannot generate the passenger demand to justify the use of a widebody airliner. The practice has been controversial, because although the 757 has adequate range to cross the Atlantic Ocean comfortably, strong headwinds caused by the

jetstream Jet streams are fast flowing, narrow air currents in the Earth's atmosphere. The main jet streams are located near the altitude of the tropopause and are westerly winds, flowing west to east around the globe. The northern hemisphere and th ...

over the winter months can result in westbound flights being declared "minimum fuel", forcing a refuelling stop at Gander, Newfoundland, in order to safely complete their journey. Aloha Airlines operated 180-minute ETOPS–approved Boeing 737-700 aircraft on nonstop routes between the Hawaiian Islands and the western U.S. and also Vancouver, Canada. The use of the smaller 737-700 enabled Aloha to serve routes that could not support larger jet aircraft with an example being the

Honolulu Honolulu ( ; ) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Hawaii, located in the Pacific Ocean. It is the county seat of the Consolidated city-county, consolidated City and County of Honol ...

–

Burbank Burbank may refer to: Places Australia * Burbank, Queensland, a suburb in Brisbane United States * Burbank, California, a city in Los Angeles County * Burbank, Santa Clara County, California, a census-designated place * Burbank, Illinois, ...

nonstop route. Prior to the 737-700 operation, Aloha Airlines had operated 737-200 aircraft to various Pacific islands utilizing 120 minute ETOPS. Other new-generation ETOPS aircraft include the

Airbus A220 The Airbus A220 is a family of five-abreast narrow-body airliners by Airbus Canada Limited Partnership (ACLP). It was originally developed by Bombardier Aviation and had two years in service as the Bombardier CSeries. The program was launche ...

series, the Embraer E-Jets series and the

ATR 72 The ATR 72 is a twin-engine turboprop, short-haul regional airliner developed and produced in France and Italy by aircraft manufacturer ATR. The number "72" in its name is derived from the aircraft's typical standard seating capacity of 72 pa ...

. By the mid-2010s, the widespread successes of ETOPS-reliant narrow-body aircraft have diminished the global market share of double-deck wide-body jets. At the onset of the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...

in the early 2020s, Boeing and Airbus have since ended all production of the 747 and A380, respectively (and both being the two largest commercial aircraft in the world). At the same time, the increasing prominence of new-generation ultra-long-range wide-body twinjets like the

and 787, and

and A350 over the last decade has shifted the favor from quadjets to

twinjet A twinjet or twin-engine jet is a jet aircraft powered by two jet engine, engines. A twinjet is able to fly well enough to land with a single working engine, making it safer than a single-engine aircraft in the event of failure of an engine. F ...

s for international long-haul travel.

Approval process

The cornerstone of the ETOPS approach is the statistics showing that the turbine assembly of a modern jet engine is an inherently reliable component. Engine ancillaries, by contrast, have a lower reliability rating. Therefore, an ETOPS-certified engine may be built with duplicate sets of certain ancillaries in order to receive the required reliability rating. ETOPS approval is a two-step process. First, the airframe and engine combination must satisfy the basic ETOPS requirements during its type certification. This is called "ETOPS type approval". Such tests may include shutting down an engine and flying the remaining engine during the complete diversion time. Often such tests are performed in the middle of the ocean. It must be demonstrated that, during the diversion flight, the flight crew is not unduly burdened by extra workload due to the lost engine and that the probability of the remaining engine failing is extremely remote. For example, if an aircraft is rated for ETOPS-180, it means that it is able to fly with full load and just one engine for three hours. Second, an operator who conducts ETOPS flights must satisfy their own country's aviation regulators about their ability to conduct ETOPS flights. This is called "ETOPS operational certification" and involves compliance with additional special engineering and flight crew procedures in addition to the normal engineering and flight procedures. Pilots and engineering staff must be qualified and trained for ETOPS. An airline with extensive experience operating long-distance flights may be awarded ETOPS operational approval immediately, while others may need to demonstrate ability through a series of ETOPS proving flights. Regulators closely watch the ETOPS performance of both type certificate holders and their affiliated airlines. Any technical incidents during an ETOPS flight must be recorded. From the data collected, the reliability of the particular airframe-engine combination is measured and statistics published. The figures must be within limits of type certifications. Of course, the figures required for ETOPS-180 will always be more stringent than ETOPS-120. Unsatisfactory figures would lead to a downgrade or, worse, suspension of ETOPS capabilities either for the type certificate holder or the airline. Engines must have an in-flight shutdown (IFSD) rate better than 1 per 20,000 hours for ETOPS-120, 1 per 50,000 hours for ETOPS-180, and 1 per 100,000 hours for beyond ETOPS-180. Private jets are exempted from ETOPS by the FAA, but are subject to the ETOPS 120-minute rule in EASA's jurisdiction. Government-owned aircraft (including military) do not have to adhere to ETOPS regulations.

Ratings

There are different levels of ETOPS certification, each allowing aircraft to fly on routes that are a certain amount of single-engine flying time away from the nearest suitable airport. For example, if an aircraft is certified for 180 minutes, it is permitted to fly any route not more than 180 minutes' single-engine flying time to the nearest suitable airport. The following ratings are awarded under current regulations according to the capability of the airliner: * ETOPS-75 * ETOPS-90 * ETOPS-120/138 * ETOPS-180/207 * ETOPS-240 * ETOPS-270 * ETOPS-330 * ETOPS-370 However, ratings for ETOPS type approval are fewer. They are: * ETOPS-90 * ETOPS-120/138 * ETOPS-180/207, which covers 95% of the Earth's surface. * ETOPS->180 to design limit

Designation

Muscat International Airport - 2024-10-24 - Andy Mabbett - 09

Until the mid-1980s, the term EROPS (extended range operations) was used before being superseded by ETOPS usage. In 1997, when Boeing proposed to extend ETOPS authority for twins to beyond 180 minutes, Airbus proposed to replace ETOPS by a newer system, referred to as Long Range Operational Performance Standards (LROPS), which would affect all civil airliners, not just those with a twin-engine configuration with more than 180 minutes ETOPS.

US FAA

The FAA stated in the

Federal Register The ''Federal Register'' (FR or sometimes Fed. Reg.) is the government gazette, official journal of the federal government of the United States that contains government agency rules, proposed rules, and public notices. It is published every wee ...

in 2007:

This final rule applies to air carrier (part 121), commuter, and on-demand (part 135) turbine powered multi-engine airplanes used in extended-range operations. However, all-cargo operations in airplanes with more than two engines of both part 121 and part 135 are exempted from the majority of this rule. Today's rule anuary 16, 2007establishes regulations governing the design, operation and maintenance of certain airplanes operated on flights that fly long distances from an adequate airport. This final rule codifies current FAA policy, industry best practices and recommendations, as well as international standards designed to ensure long-range flights will continue to operate safely."

and

Several commenters … recommended use of the acronym "LROPS"—meaning 'Long Range Operations'—for three- and four-engine ETOPS, to avoid confusion, particularly for those operations beyond 180 minutes' diversion time. The FAA has decided to use the single term, 'extended operations,' or ETOPS, for all affected operations regardless of the number of engines on the airplane."

Prior to 2007, the FAA used the term for ''Extended Range Operation with Two-Engine Airplanes'' but the meaning was changed when regulations were broadened to include aircraft with more than two engines. Air Asia Airbus A320Neo 9M-AGE

EDTO – Extended Diversion Time Operations

In 2017 ICAO amendment 36 to Part I of Annex 6 of the

Chicago Convention The Convention on International Civil Aviation, also known as the Chicago Convention, established the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), a specialized agency of the United Nations charged with coordinating international air trav ...

replaced the term ETOPS with the new term EDTO (Extended Diversion Time Operations). The main reason of this change in the terminology was to better reflect the scope and applicability of these new standards.

Backronym

A colloquial aviation

backronym A backronym is an acronym formed from an already existing word by expanding its letters into the words of a phrase. Backronyms may be invented with either serious or humorous intent, or they may be a type of false etymology or folk etymology. The ...

is "Engines Turn Or Passengers Swim", referring to the inevitable emergency

water landing In aviation, a water landing is, in the broadest sense, an aircraft landing on a body of water. Seaplanes, such as floatplanes and flying boats, land on water as a normal operation. Ditching is a controlled emergency landing on the water su ...

of a twin engine aircraft after a double

engine failure A turbine engine failure occurs when a Gas turbine, gas turbine engine unexpectedly stops producing Power (physics), power due to a malfunction other than fuel exhaustion. It often applies for aircraft, but other turbine engines can also fail, ...

over water outside gliding range of land.

References

External links

* * * * * * * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Etops Aviation licenses and certifications Aviation safety