diff --git a/pkg/cmd/openshift-apiserver/cmd.go b/pkg/cmd/openshift-apiserver/cmd.go
index 3b8fc22c6..16a0ed30e 100644
--- a/pkg/cmd/openshift-apiserver/cmd.go
+++ b/pkg/cmd/openshift-apiserver/cmd.go
@@ -104,7 +104,7 @@ func (o *OpenShiftAPIServer) Validate() error {
 
 // RunAPIServer takes the options, starts the API server and waits until stopCh is closed or initial listening fails.
 func (o *OpenShiftAPIServer) RunAPIServer(stopCh <-chan struct{}) error {
-	if err := features.InitializeFeatureGates(feature.DefaultMutableFeatureGate, openshiftfeatures.SelfManaged, openshiftfeatures.FeatureGateRouteExternalCertificate); err != nil {
+	if err := features.InitializeFeatureGates(feature.DefaultMutableFeatureGate, openshiftfeatures.SelfManaged); err != nil {
 		return err
 	}
 
diff --git a/pkg/cmd/openshift-apiserver/openshiftapiserver/config.go b/pkg/cmd/openshift-apiserver/openshiftapiserver/config.go
index 22f2419e2..8e395e0d9 100644
--- a/pkg/cmd/openshift-apiserver/openshiftapiserver/config.go
+++ b/pkg/cmd/openshift-apiserver/openshiftapiserver/config.go
@@ -6,7 +6,6 @@ import (
 	"net/http"
 	"time"
 
-	openshiftfeatures "github.com/openshift/api/features"
 	openshiftcontrolplanev1 "github.com/openshift/api/openshiftcontrolplane/v1"
 	"github.com/openshift/apiserver-library-go/pkg/configflags"
 	"github.com/openshift/library-go/pkg/apiserver/admission/admissiontimeout"
@@ -35,7 +34,6 @@ import (
 	"k8s.io/client-go/kubernetes"
 	"k8s.io/client-go/restmapper"
 	"k8s.io/component-base/compatibility"
-	"k8s.io/component-base/featuregate"
 	"k8s.io/klog/v2"
 	"k8s.io/kubernetes/pkg/api/legacyscheme"
 )
@@ -266,7 +264,6 @@ func NewOpenshiftAPIConfig(config *openshiftcontrolplanev1.OpenShiftAPIServerCon
 			AdditionalTrustedCA:                caData,
 			ImageStreamImportMode:              apisimage.ImportModeType(config.ImagePolicyConfig.ImageStreamImportMode),
 			RouteAllocator:                     routeAllocator,
-			AllowRouteExternalCertificates:     feature.DefaultFeatureGate.Enabled(featuregate.Feature(openshiftfeatures.FeatureGateRouteExternalCertificate)),
 			ProjectAuthorizationCache:          projectAuthorizationCache,
 			ProjectCache:                       projectCache,
 			ProjectRequestTemplate:             config.ProjectConfig.ProjectRequestTemplate,
diff --git a/pkg/cmd/openshift-apiserver/openshiftapiserver/openshift_apiserver.go b/pkg/cmd/openshift-apiserver/openshiftapiserver/openshift_apiserver.go
index 58f142192..cfb67c0ae 100644
--- a/pkg/cmd/openshift-apiserver/openshiftapiserver/openshift_apiserver.go
+++ b/pkg/cmd/openshift-apiserver/openshiftapiserver/openshift_apiserver.go
@@ -90,8 +90,7 @@ type OpenshiftAPIExtraConfig struct {
 	AdditionalTrustedCA                []byte
 	ImageStreamImportMode              apisimage.ImportModeType
 
-	RouteAllocator                 *routehostassignment.SimpleAllocationPlugin
-	AllowRouteExternalCertificates bool
+	RouteAllocator *routehostassignment.SimpleAllocationPlugin
 
 	ProjectAuthorizationCache *projectauth.AuthorizationCache
 	ProjectCache              *projectcache.ProjectCache
@@ -328,7 +327,7 @@ func (c *completedConfig) withRouteAPIServer(delegateAPIServer genericapiserver.
 		ExtraConfig: routeapiserver.ExtraConfig{
 			KubeAPIServerClientConfig: c.ExtraConfig.KubeAPIServerClientConfig,
 			RouteAllocator:            c.ExtraConfig.RouteAllocator,
-			AllowExternalCertificates: c.ExtraConfig.AllowRouteExternalCertificates,
+			AllowExternalCertificates: true,
 			Codecs:                    legacyscheme.Codecs,
 			Scheme:                    legacyscheme.Scheme,
 		},