The charge is levied per departure. Each cluster of airports, or charging zones have their own unit rates.

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1 Introduction of Terminal Navigation Charges (TNC) From 1 January 2010, it is mandatory for all EASA Member States to charge for air navigation services provided by airports to arriving and departing aircraft. However, this applies only to some airports and there are options for any Member State to exempt certain aircraft. The amount charged varies by Member State. This is the second and final part of the Common Charging Scheme, where the first part was about enroute charges. This document has been informed by information from the Single European Sky Stakeholders forum held by the DfT, and supported by online research. The purpose of the document is to describe the expected effect of terminal charges on the pilot of a light GA aircraft. 1. Charging mechanism Terminal charges will apply at 214 airports, and the list is here (and at the end of this document). The charge is calculated by multiplying the unit rate by the weight factor. Example EHGG Groningen, 2t aircraft: Unit rate = Weight factor = (MTOW/50) 0.7. Terminal charge = The charge is levied per departure. Each cluster of airports, or charging zones have their own unit rates. The weight factor for a charging zone has the same mathematical formula. The default exponent is 0.7 and all charging zones must use this by Some charging zones are choosing to use 0.5 and some 0.9 for now. Going from an exponent of 0.7 to 0.9 halves the terminal charge for a 2t aircraft. Going from 0.7 to 0.5 doubles it. The 2010 unit rates and weight factors are available here. (and at the end of this document) The example quoted for the Netherlands is the highest in Western Europe. Eastern Europe has some examples of higher prices, particularly Poland and Hungary. 2. Exemptions For operators of aircraft <2t and of aircraft flying VFR, the key point is that of exemptions, and there are two ways in which an exemption can apply. Not all airports have to make terminal charges The table below shows how terminal charges are mandated by EU law Number of Commercial Air Transport movements per year Requirement for making terminal charges UK airports with this number of CAT movements per year (as an example for context) >150,000 Mandatory EGLL, EGKK EGSS, EGCC 50, ,000 Mandatory, unless it can be proven that a competitive market for air navigation services exists at that airport <50,000 Optional All the rest EGPD, EGAA, EGBB, EGGD, EGPH, EGPF, EGLC, EGGW, EGNT, EGNX (but all these are exempted, see below) Of the airports of k CAT movements per year, the UK has chosen and been able to exercise their exemption. This means that there will not be a specific terminal charge applied and there will be no change from the current arrangements except at EGLL, EGKK EGSS, EGCC. Apparently, the CAA were very keen not to have to make this charge and worked hard to make the case that a contestable market existed at the airports in question. The same is true for Luxembourg. Most Western European Member States seem to have chosen not to apply terminal charges to airports with less than 50,000 CAT movements per year. This means only a few larger airports will make a terminal charge. Two notable exceptions are France and Italy who have chosen to apply terminal charges to 64 and 42 airports respectively. In France, the decision was made to set the lower limit at 15,000 CAT movements per year. However, for France, see the second exemption below

2 Not all users have to be charged There are a number of potential users that do not have to be charged. The two categories of user of most interest to the GA pilot are aircraft of less than 2t MTOW, and VFR operations. The table below describes which exemptions are mandatory and which are discretionary. <2t MTOW IFR <2t MTOW VFR >2t VFR En route charges Mandatory exemption Mandatory exemption Optional exemption Terminal charges Optional exemption Optional exemption Optional exemption In France, all <2t operations and all VFR operations were exempted in accordance with a 1990 decree, and there is nothing that indicates that the situation will change. Reference here section 2.3 In Germany, all <2t operations have a fixed fee of at 16 aerodromes. Reference here There may be other exemptions or reduced fixed fees. 3. Summary No terminal charges at any practical UK airport No terminal charges at any French airport for <2t Fixed fee for Germany of at 16 specified airports, three of which are of limited practicality EDDT, EDDF, EDDM Worst case for a western European Member State terminal charge for a 2t aircraft Terminal charges in eastern European Member States can be quite high, up to 70, unless there are exemptions 4. Future On the face of it, the situation doesn t appear too bad. So what about the future? The forecast for the fiveyear period is for terminal costs to rise at an average 2.3% per year. However, if traffic to the relevant airports were to increase at the same rate, then terminal charges would remain the same. If traffic were to increase, then terminal charges would go down. The formula for the weight factor appears stable, with a five-year plan to get to a common exponent of 0.7. Finally, one of the goals of the common charging scheme is to drive costs down and efficiency up, so we should not expect to see dramatic increases in charges. 5. Background Terminal charges have been planned since 1981, and the scheme we have in 2010 was developed in 2004, with the key regulation coming into force on 6 December The main principles are: - to drive a common and transparent method for accounting for the costs of air navigation services in each Member State. This is to make sure all Member States are working on a common commercial basis and that there is not any subsidy that might make one Member State appear more competitive than another - to use this common method of accounting to drive cost efficiency - to ensure that the user pays and pays as close as possible to the source of the services received. It is written into the Commission Regulation that: The level of charges imposed in particular on light aircraft should not discourage the use of facilities and services necessary for safety or the introduction of new techniques and procedures. Terminal charges were discussed as part of the negotiation process for the ultimately successful <2t enroute exemption. However, terminal charges at the time were much less developed than enroute charges, so there were many details left open for future resolution.

3 Airports with terminal charges

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5 2010 Unit rates and weight factors