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Solent (Southampton ATC) £50 charge for transit?

here

Page 14 of the PDF:

2.2 Aircraft Transiting Solent Air Space: Aircraft utilising the navigation services of the Airport (via radio contact under IFR conditions) to enter, exit or transit Solent Airspace are subject to a charge per movement. Charge per movement: £50.00

Not sure what to make of that!

Administrator
Shoreham EGKA, United Kingdom

Perfect let's discourage people from calling up, talking and using radar services. Just get more people skirting zones to save the money. And more incursions.

EGTK Oxford

Blimey. I assume that's for the whole of the Solent CTA going down south past the Isle of Wight and not just the immediate Control Zone. For the limited bits of IFR flying I have done, I haven't come across anywhere being charged en-route, everything is billed on a landing, even if it is a low go around on some ILS training. I guess if you are IFR and you are high, you would be speaking to someone else and you wouldn't use their services, and if you was low and en-route you would just give Solent a wide berth, or just say you are VFR in IMC.

If you did use their service en-route, and you didn't know about this (as I didn't up until now), you couldn't negotiate this in the air could you? It's not what I could call 'standard phraseology'. "Cleared to cross Solent IFR not below 2000 ft, standby why we prepare to take your credit card details".

Up high you are talking to London but I assume this could impact people flying lower.

EGTK Oxford

This is the control zone only, right? Airports only "own" control zones, TMA and stuff should be owned by ATC and charged via Eurocontrol.

Often airports only charge for use of their ILS when they have your address. I used to do ILS at an aerodrome for years and never got charged until I landed there once and they got my address. Now they send me invoices each time...

One can understand Southampton EGHI charging for an IAP but if that PDF is not a cockup it means light GA will be charged for an IFR transit of the Class D, which people do all the time (although most of them cross VFR at 4000ft as directed by ATC).

If this proposal is real, it would be a new one for anywhere in the UK, a new one for anywhere in Europe AFAIK, and a nasty predecent because it amounts to an IFR route charge below 2000kg.

It will also force everybody to descend to 3400ft or to 1900ft and fly through the "tunnel" just north of the Isle of Wight, where most people are not transponding (because most low flying UK GA is non transponding), where I've had a few airproxes including one where the other aircraft turned the wrong way for a head-on, and where there is arriving/departing traffic for Bournemouth with its heavy IR training traffic which flies at low level in that area.

Last year's map but I think it's the same:

Amusingly, I did my JAA IRT at EGHI in Jan 2012 and when I phoned them afterwards to pay for the approaches and holds they said they have no price list for that so they didn't charge me. I was expecting something like £50-£100. I thought this obvious administrative cockup was the best kept secret on the south coast and didn't tell anybody about it

Administrator
Shoreham EGKA, United Kingdom

" Tower Golf alpha tango requesting an IFR transit"

"Hey! I'm Golf alpha tango! Am I also want an IFR transit"

"Never mind those two! I'm the real Golf alpha tango! And I want a free VFR transit!"

EIWT Weston, Ireland

Years ago I recall paying Bournemouth for the landing etc, by giving a CC # over the radio.

They offered me the option of using another frequency, which they gave me, obviously over the open radio, so anybody listening only had to re-tune their radio to get the CC #

Administrator
Shoreham EGKA, United Kingdom

the airport of Sylt EDXW (Island in the North Sea at the Danish border) also asks for a transit fee if you cross their control zone (D) - equal to the price you pay for an approach VFR or IFR.

Part II – Approach Charges 1. A charge is payable for the utilization of services and facilities of air traffic services during an approach by an aircraft into Sylt Airport . 2. Utilization is defined as the entry and exit into and from the CTR or an approach with resulting landing at the airport. 3. The charges for utilization are € 4,80 excl. VAT per 1000kg of MTOW. 4. The charges are payable by the aircraft operator at the time of utilization. If the operator is not known, the owner of said aircraft is liable for the payment of the charges.

EDxx, Germany

Wow! That's a pretty short-sighted move. Does anyone know whether this charge is enforceable? You could quite conceivably ask for an IFR transit and not be aware of the charge. Afterall, having to read a random PDF on the Internet is not a condition of entry to controlled airspace.

Interestingly they don't define the term, "navigation services" in the "interpretation" section of the document so you could possibly claim you transited their airspace under IFR and, despite talking to them on the radio, you didn't actually use their "navigation services" because you were using your own GPS.

Fairoaks, United Kingdom
27 Posts
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