Unfortunately, the transfer of activity from “certified GA” to the ULM scene, while presented as a victory for personal freedom etc etc, is the first sign of a collapse of GA activity. It has already happened in Spain and Italy, where GA runs largely below the radar (both figuratively and literally) and in between grass strips. Greece seems to be heading the same way… what little bit of GA was left there before Fraport killed it with €300+ fees. One would have hoped that it will be much slower in France, with some 40k (IIRC) club aircraft.
Anyway, this is another topic 
The FFA lobbies on behalf of most French pilots (club pilots) and is quite effective at dealing with the dgac, easa, insurance, jurisprudence, airfield threats etc. But they can’t win them all.
IMHO one of the major reasons for the fall in flying hours on SEP’s has been the conversion by so many PPL’s to the ULM where hours flown don’t need to be recorded.
One of the club members here, has in the last 12 months flown his ULM to Senegal, Croatia, and last week Berlin. I doubt if any of the hours flown on these trips will ever occur in published statistics.
Great news.
Someone checked the French forums and didn’t see anything there…
so it’s down to lobbying organisations to make clear what is an appropriate fee to pay in order for GA to survive / thrive.
Europe doesn’t have any “lobbying organisations” for GA
France shot itself in the foot in 2011/2012, with the removal of the “nominal police presence” (they rarely turned up anyway) from 50+ airports. Some reported a 1/3 drop in traffic… but nobody cares.
Anyway, as of now, according to the AIP, aircraft below 2 tons MTOW are exempt from these charges. I don’t want to spread FUD here, so unless someone receives infos to the contrary (i.e. receives an invoice for an aircraft berow 2 tons), let’s leave it at this.
To be fair, nav charges do have to be paid somehow. I’d rather they be collected by the airport and not separately by Eurocontrol though.
The USA collects some of this from AVGAS tax. Canada collects some of this via an annual fee for the aircraft.
In the UK, transits are free, but landings are not for all sizes of aircraft, and nav service charges are collected by the airport. So there’s a bit of give and take.
Aircraft less than 2MT remains exempt from enroute charges (all over Europe) as the cost to collect exceeds the costs charged.
The fees obviously add to the cost of flying so it’s down to lobbying organisations to make clear what is an appropriate fee to pay in order for GA to survive / thrive.
It would increase even more the cost of IFR flying, making it less accessible. Toussus LFPN, Grenoble LFLS, Brest LFRB, Pau LFBP have clubs doing IR training. 18€ for each departure is not negligible during training (more if touring).
Peter wrote:
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.
The subject of the circular IS that EUROCONTROL will now charge this fee.
They have been doing this for many years for the Netherlands. Even for below 2 tons.
And see again the list of airports. It’s more or less all the controlled airports, even the very small, sleppy ones. Dozens of busy aeroclubs there.
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.
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.
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.
