Does anyone know whether this charge is enforceable?
Of course it is.
You could quite conceivably ask for an IFR transit and not be aware of the charge.
Probably not because the lowest IFR level (4000ft for the airways around Sylt) is higher than their control zone. The only way to go there IFR is to do a (practice) approach and then the fee applies in any case. Many airports in Germany now charge only one fee now for both approach and landing.
Afterall, having to read a random PDF on the Internet is not a condition of entry to controlled airspace.
It is not published via random PFD on the internet, but in the AIP.
NB: I have absolutely no problem with regulations that ensure that services received are paid for by the people who receive those services. Otherwise that would have to be the taxpayer once again. And why should he pay the ATC staff of some remote airport that he is not using?
This is the control zone only, right? Airports only "own" control zones, TMA and stuff should be owned by ATC and charged via Eurocontrol.
Airports never own control zones. Airports are companies, they never own airspace, as airspace is public property. They are obliged to allow transits. I never heard that someone got charged for using it in UK. This needs to be stopped.
And why should he pay the ATC staff of some remote airport that he is not using?
If you live near Stuttgart, why would you pay for an Autobahn near Rostock, which you will never use?
If you live near Stuttgart, why would you pay for an Autobahn near Rostock, which you will never use?
I don't want to pay for that autobahn, believe me. Unfortunaltely as of now, roads are paid for by the taxpayers in this country. But we are slowly shifting towards toll motorways where only the people who actually use the roads pay for them. And this is also the way aviation is organised, more or less.
Airports never own control zones. Airports are companies, they never own airspace, as airspace is public property. They are obliged to allow transits. I never heard that someone got charged for using it in UK. This needs to be stopped.
The Sylt situation is weird, indeed. Control zones of towered airports are managed by ATC (DFS in Germany) so they would be the one collecting the fees which they have been doing for approach/departure fees. Every time you fly to e.g. EDDS (Stuttgart), you have to pay airport fees, handling fees and some weeks later you get an invoice from DFS for approach/departure fees. Also applies to VFR. So this means that DFS would send you a bill for a control zone transit.
Maybe it is only about noise abatement. Sylt is a pretty posh place and people don't like airplanes flying low so the transit fee could just be a message to pilots to avoid the control zone for anything but a landing/departure.
I'm not keen on Sylt anyway. I get my bill from DFS or Eurocontrol on a regular basis. Approach fees are ok, but a transit fee is ridiculous. £50 + VAT = £60 = €71 for a transit! I wonder what type of service you get there for that sort of money. Wiping your a** with gold plated toilet paper in 2000ft?
How are they going to collect the Solent transit fee from N-registered trafic? Although maybe the paradox is that the IFR transiting N-reg traffic will largely be on IFR flightplans above 5,000ft in the airway above Solent's zone, and will therefore not be charged for a zone transit.
This charge is (intentionally or unintentionally) almost exclusively going to hit G-registered IFR traffic flown by pilots on IMCR's, who have called for an IFR zone transit for safety reasons, as opposed to commercial instrument traffic; this is a clear continuation of Solent's attempt to shovel GA traffic out of their zone, by fair means or foul.
I believe Galway were the first to adopt this practice, although i don't know it for a fact.
How are they going to collect the Solent transit fee from N-registered trafic?
This is what really stinks about this measure. Airports rarely employ people with more than 2 braincells in their admin departments (I've had so many run-ins with them over all kinds of cockups) so what they will do is look up the registered address and send a bill to the trustee, who will forward it to the owner, sometimes with a stroppy letter, and quite often with a bill for doing it.
That happens anyway, quite often, because you pay the landing fee but they lose the record and send you the bill. That's why I keep receipts for a year or so.
The other thing is that this is completely wrong in terms of aviation practice. A pilot planning a flight from A to B (say Lydd to Exeter) is not going to be reading the AIP entry for Southampton, just because he plans to transit their piece of Class D. That is completely contrary to the way aviation works at this level.
A lot of people, familiar with the area, will dogleg below the 2000ft airspace base instead of transiting via SAM, or they will do a "VFR" transit in VMC or IMC (which is less good from the ATC / separation point of view).
It is not published via random PFD on the internet, but in the AIP.
We were talking at crossed purposes. I was making a comment on the original post regarding Solent, not Sylt. Peter's link was to a PDF on Southampton Airport's web site. I was asking whether that charge was enforceable given someone may be unaware of it before transiting that airspace.
