EASA Reliability Programmes and Monitoring

When an EASA maintenance programme includes a reliability programme, what M.A.302 and the AMC say it is for.

Dionysis Kefalas12 Jun 20263 min readFor CAMO and Part-145 staff

Part 3 of 8 in EASA Continuing Airworthiness Show parts

1Continuing Airworthiness: Part-M and Part-CAMO
2Aircraft Maintenance Programme under Part-M
3EASA Reliability Programmes and Monitoring
4Airworthiness Reviews and the ARC
5CAMO and CAO Continuing Airworthiness Bodies
6Part-M: Release to Service and Records
7EASA Airworthiness Directives: AD Compliance Explained
8LLP Back-to-Birth Records and Component Tracking (M.A.305)

Quotes checked on 24 Sep 2026 against EASA Easy Access Rules for Continuing Airworthiness (Regulation (EU) No 1321/2014) — 2 Sep 2025 revision.

On this page

Why a reliability programme

MSN-EXAMPLE-014 is back in the hangar. The component has been removed again, still inside the interval in the maintenance programme. Where the rule requires one, the feedback is a reliability programme.

M.A.302Aircraft maintenance programme

[…]
(g)For complex motor-powered aircraft, when the AMP is based on maintenance steering group logic or on condition monitoring, the AMP shall include a reliability programme.
(h)The AMP shall be subject to periodic reviews and be amended accordingly when necessary. Those reviews shall ensure that the AMP continues to be up to date and valid in light of the operating experience and instructions from the competent authority, while taking into account new or modified maintenance instructions issued by the type-certificate and supplemental type-certificate holders, declarant of a declaration of design compliance and any other organisation that publishes such data in accordance with Annex I (Part 21) or, as applicable, Annex Ib (Part 21 Light) to Regulation (EU) No 748/2012.

Quoted word for word from Regulation (EU) No 1321/2014, Easy Access Rules for Continuing Airworthiness, 2 Sep 2025 revision.

Every other point of M.A.302 is quoted in the maintenance-programme guide. This page does not restate those points.

M.A.301Continuing airworthiness tasks

[…]
(e)for all complex motor-powered aircraft or aircraft used by air carriers licensed in accordance with Regulation (EC) No 1008/2008, the analysis of the effectiveness of the approved AMP referred to in point M.A.302;
[…]

Quoted word for word from Regulation (EU) No 1321/2014, Easy Access Rules for Continuing Airworthiness, 2 Sep 2025 revision.

Read (e) beside (g). The two sentences are not the same sentence.

What the AMC says it is for

AMC M.A.302(g)Aircraft maintenance programme

RELIABILITY PROGRAMMES
1.Reliability programmes should be developed for aircraft maintenance programmes based upon maintenance steering group (MSG) logic or those that include condition monitored components or that do not contain overhaul time periods for all significant system components.
2.Reliability programmes need not be developed for aircraft not considered complex motor-powered aircraft or that contain overhaul time periods for all significant aircraft system components.
3.The purpose of a reliability programme is to ensure that the aircraft maintenance programme tasks are effective and their periodicity is adequate.
4.The reliability programme may result in the escalation or deletion of a maintenance task, as well as the de-escalation or addition of a maintenance task
5.A reliability programme provides an appropriate means of monitoring the effectiveness of the maintenance programme.
6.Appendix I to AMC M.A.302 and M.B.301(d) gives further guidance.

Quoted word for word from Regulation (EU) No 1321/2014, Easy Access Rules for Continuing Airworthiness, 2 Sep 2025 revision.

Point (g), quoted above, is the requirement. The AMC is not that sentence, and it does not name a statistical method. The appendix in point 6 is not quoted here. For safety performance indicators, setting alert levels from a baseline mean and standard deviation is worked through in SPI Alert Levels and Targets: A Worked Example.

Where a change to the programme goes

A change that amends the AMP is still M.A.302. The maintenance-programme guide quotes the whole point. This page quotes (g) and (h) only.

The CAMO guide quotes the organisation approval. The airworthiness-review guide is the review. Neither is restated here.

Where to read it yourself

The EASA sentences above are M.A.302 and M.A.301 in Annex I (Part-M), and AMC M.A.302(g), in the EASA Easy Access Rules for Continuing Airworthiness. Every EASA citation in this guide was checked against the 2025-09-02 revision.

A published method for the statistics is FAA advisory circular AC 120-17B, Reliability Program Methods. It is not an EASA document, it is not binding in this system, and this guide does not quote it.

Educational content, not regulatory compliance advice. Verify against the current regulation text before relying on it.