I am UK pilot, flying only very occasionally over mainland Europe. I have had a charge from Eurocontrol which I do not understand. I have queried it with them but perhaps members here can also help please.
Back in May, I flew IFR in Rotterdam (EHRD) airspace (in an aeroplane with MTOM 998 kg) and there was a terminal charge which seemed entirely reasonable so I paid .
I now have an invoice for a further charge for a flight from Rotterdam (EHRD) in June. That flight was entirely VFR (special VFR departure from Rotterdam then VFR to EGMC).Should there be a Eurocontrol charge for VFR? I understood that they only charge for IFR.
The amount is trivial and I would just pay it but the transaction charge is two or three times the actual amount owed.
Joe-fbs wrote:
the transaction charge is two or three times the actual amount owed.
Can I recommend Transferwise? I use it all the time and consider it faultless. The smaller the amount, the better is the value.
The other recommendation is a Caxton Card. Similarly faultless and very cheap to operate, but obviously only any good if the accept Mastercard payment.
A fast and helpful response from Eurocontrol:
“terminal charges in the Netherlands are levied for each flight departing from Schiphol EHAM, Maastricht EHBK, Rotterdam EHRD or Groninge/Eelde EHGG”
So that’s that then. So neither charge was an IFR charge, both were departure charges.
Thank you Timothy, I will investigate Transferwise.
I fist thought you’d been victim of a scam (there are apparently some on route charges), but that doesn’t seem the case. They are around, though.
Regarding the payment, the new “digital banks” (Monzo / Revolut) offer cards with essentially no transaction fees (and pretty much spot FX) and free transfers. You also see charges immediately, so everything is much more transparent. I use HSBC only for GBP stuff and have saved a ton of money this year.
You can open an account with Revolut very quickly. I’ve just checked and transactions to any country in EU are free.
It would have been an elaborate and poor value scam. The two invoices (one flight was 31st May and one was 1st June) each for 9.52 Euro were each of about ten pages and arrived by surface mail to the registered address of the syndicate. If it had been an email with links, I would have been suspicious and checked more deeply before paying or even clicking any links. Why the airport does not simply collect the 9.52 Euro with the landing fee is a mystery known only to people with non-jobs who run such systems.
PS the person who answered my email was polite, helpful and prompt. Nothing but praise for her.
Joe-fbs wrote:
Why the airport does not simply collect the 9.52 Euro with the landing fee is a mystery known only to people with non-jobs who run such systems.
The lack of integration across services, in some places, goes way beyond just that. It seems to me that Airport ATC, Eurocontrol, Apron, Police, Customs, Immigration, Security, Commercial, Fuel, Handling Agents and so on take almost a pride in their inability and/or unwillingness to communicate with each other. Probably motivated by employment disputes and professional jealousy.
Antwerp Police, for example, know what the AIP and airport website say about immigration, but operate their own regime, which is completely different, and just expect visitors to know. There are plenty of other examples.
Joe-fbs wrote:
the transaction charge is two or three times the actual amount owed.
They take credit cards, against a percentage surcharge (is it 2%?). For small amounts, the percentage is smaller than wire transfer costs, even if added to credit card currency change margin.
Eurocontrol has built a very efficient invoicing system to impose en-route charges. These en-route charges are indeed for IFR >2t only. However, Eurocontrol also offers the usage of this system to national ATC providers for the charging of terminal charges. Not every European ATC provider uses this system, but the Dutch LVNL does.
https://www.eurocontrol.int/sites/default/files/content/documents/route-charges/reference-documents/customer-guide-to-charges-2016-v-11-0.pdf (Part B, from page 17 onwards)
https://www.eurocontrol.int/sites/default/files/content/documents/route-charges/unit-rates-and-tariffs/eh-2018-01.pdf
So a landing at EHRD will cost you three ways:
- Landing fee, payable to the airport
- Handling fee, payable to the handler
- ATC fee, payable to LVNL
The first two are payable locally, but the third is exclusively invoiced and payable through Eurocontrol.
I sort-of agree with Joe-fbs that integration of these charges would be more desirable, but there is one advantage for LVNL for doing this, that has not been mentioned before: It allows LVNL to split their total charge into a landing fee and a departure fee, and to apply different rates to these depending on the time of the day or other factors. At the moment I don’t think LVNL uses this scheme, but other countries might.
