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Terminal charges in France, starting 1st of July 2019

Surprised this hasn‘t come up here yet.
This is the relevant circular. local copy

What this means is that, as from 1st of July 2019, all takeoffs from (AFAICS) more or less all French airports associated with controlled airspace will be charged a terminal fee by Eurocontrol, on behalf of DGAC.

For a 1.5 ton aircraft, the charge is roughly 18 Euros. Nothing earth shattering, but still, quite an additional cost for GA. Might kill many aeroclubs based at such airports, if this turns out to be true. Maybe that is a major part of the goal of this fee?

Anyway, the biggest nuisance that comes with this a that totally unbelievably incompetent and incomprehensible invoicing by Eurocontrol. That is one of the craziest things in European aviation, now coming at us not only for flights in the Netherlands, but also all of France!?! Good lord…

I see a few more threads coming on this… and thus some merging work for Peter…

Or am I missing something?

Mainz (EDFZ) & Egelsbach (EDFE), Germany

I did see the circular with this months invoice but haven’t looked into it in detail yet. As you say another cost for GA …a soft target !

Alex
Shoreham (EGKA) White Waltham (EGLM), United Kingdom

as a French pilot I was very surprised By your post.

Found in the AIP GEN 4.2 that it’s only for aircrafts > 2t, as usual :

4.2.2 TERMINAL NAVIGATION CHARGE IN MAINLAND FRANCE

4.2.2.3 Exemptions
The following flights are exempted from the payment of charges:
a. flights performed by aircraft of which the maximum take-off weight authorised is less than two (2) metric tons;

Found it in the last AIP

As Bosco says, the cost is one thing. The admin another. Given the amounts involved, I have to read the Eurocontrol invoices carefully. They are the worst invoice I have ever seen. As if they were designed by a committee, and one that had never seen an invoice before.

EGTK Oxford

LV: thanks. However, that AIP section predates the 1st of July 2019, so I am still holding by breath…

Jason: you as someone who flies aircraft over 2 tons: did you previously pay terminal charges? If yes, who charged them?

Mainz (EDFZ) & Egelsbach (EDFE), Germany

The Currently Effective eAIP is from 18 JUL 2019, I expect it’s the good one !

Some AIPs don’t get updated for 10 years or more in relation to changes in some national legislation, so I wouldn’t count too much on it.

boscomantico wrote:

What this means is that, as from 1st of July 2019, all takeoffs from (AFAICS) more or less all French airports associated with controlled airspace will be charged a terminal fee by Eurocontrol, on behalf of DGAC.

For a 1.5 ton aircraft, the charge is roughly 18 Euros. Nothing earth shattering, but still, quite an additional cost for GA. Might kill many aeroclubs based at such airports, if this turns out to be true. Maybe that is a major part of the goal of this fee?

It says on the first page that this applies to IFR only, so I don’t think it will have a big impact on aeroclubs.

ESKC (Uppsala/Sundbro), Sweden

boscomantico wrote:

Jason: you as someone who flies aircraft over 2 tons: did you previously pay terminal charges? If yes, who charged them?

Sometimes local bodies (eg DFS) but also often Eurocontrol.

EGTK Oxford

I do wonder who will be collecting this crazy fee. A lot of French airports invoice anything up to a year in arrears… Maybe they will build it into the landing fee? It would seem strange to use Eurocontrol to collect this fee; AFAIK they were never involved in anything below 2000kg before. In Germany the airport charges are collected by DFS. These fees tend to be payable by bank transfer only, and foreign (non €zone) pilots can easily spend as much again on bank charges.

If a current AIP says the charge is not applicable then I reckon you can use that to defend not paying it. Keep a copy of that AIP

I don’t think it will have a big impact on aeroclubs.

Also there is very little aeroclub activity at most of the airports in question.

Administrator
Shoreham EGKA, United Kingdom
17 Posts
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