The Civil Aviation (Route Charges for Navigation Services) (Amendment) Regulations 1996

Made: 10th June 1996

Laid before Parliament: 10th June 1996

Coming into force: 1st July 1996

Whereas in pursuance of tariffs approved under the Eurocontrol Convention[^f00001] and under the Multilateral Agreement relating to Route Charges concluded at Brussels on 12th February 1981[^f00001] (being international agreements to which the United Kingdom is a party), the Secretary of State for Transport has determined rates of charges, as specified in the following Regulations, payable to Eurocontrol in respect of navigation services provided for aircraft:

Now, therefore, the Secretary of State for Transport in exercise of the powers conferred by section 73(1)(a), (1A)(a) and (6) of the Civil Aviation Act 1982[^f00002] and of all other powers enabling him in that behalf, hereby makes the following Regulations:

1

These Regulations may be cited as the Civil Aviation (Route Charges for Navigation Services) (Amendment) Regulations 1996 and shall come into force on 1st July 1996.

2

The Civil Aviation (Route Charges for Navigation Services) Regulations 1995[^f00003] shall be amended as follows:

• (a) For regulation 5(2) there shall be substituted the following regulation—

(2) The equivalent in sterling of the charge may be recovered in any court of competent jurisdiction in the United Kingdom.

• (b) For Schedule 2 thereof there shall be substituted—

SCHEDULE 2

• (c) For Schedule 3 thereof there shall be substituted—

SCHEDULE 3

Signed

Signed by authority of the Secretary of State for Transport

Goschen — Parliamentary Under Secretary of State, — Department of Transport — 10th June 1996

Explanatory note

(This note is not part of the Regulations)

These Regulations amend the Civil Aviation (Route Charges for Navigation Services) Regulations 1995 (“the Principal Regulations”) as follows:

The saving in regulation 5(2) of the Principal Regulations to the effect that the power to recover the sterling equivalent of a charge in any court of competent jurisdiction in the UK is without prejudice to any existing rule of law relating to the recovery of a debt expressed in ECUs is deleted (regulation 2(a)).

New unit rates and transatlantic charges are introduced to take account of the new apportionment of Eurocontrol costs between the Member States resulting principally from the accession of Italy to the Eurocontrol Convention on 1st July 1996 (regulation 2(b) and (c)).

The unit rates for Austria, Belgium, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Slovenia, Switzerland and Turkey have decreased on average by 1.6%. The unit rate for Portugal-Santa Maria has decreased by 1.1%. The unit rate for Spain is unchanged. The unit rate for the United Kingdom has decreased by 1%.

The amount of the charges in ECUs set out in Schedule 3 to the Principal Regulations are calculated by reference to the costs of provision of en-route navigation services in the participating countries in the Eurocontrol charges system, the amount of traffic using each country’s airspace and the relationship of each country’s currency to the ECU over a period agreed by Ministers of the participating countries. The interaction of these elements varies in each country. In calculating the revised charges the average of the exchange rates between the ECU and the currencies of the participating countries obtaining in the month of July 1995 have been used.

Footnotes

[^f00001]: Cmnd. 8662.

[^f00002]: 1982 c. 16; section 73(1A) was added by section 1 of the Civil Aviation (Air Navigation Charges) Act 1989 (c. 9); “prescribed” is defined in section 105(1).

[^f00003]: S.I. 1995/3160.