Graham Warwick/WASHington DC
CANADA IS considering sanctions that could be imposed on the USA if it fails in legal efforts to ban overflight fees introduced by the US Federal Aviation Administration in May. Options range from levying similar fees on US airlines overflying Canadian airspace to asking the United Nations to transfer US control of northern Pacific oceanic airspace to Canada.
Canadian airlines, meanwhile, are planning to make increased use of routes over the Russian Far East to avoid the new fees for using US-controlled Pacific airspace. Previously, Russian user fees offset the fuel saving from shorter routes to Asia over its airspace, but the new US oceanic fees have tipped the balance, Canadian airlines argue.
A legal challenge filed by the Air Transport Association of Canada (ATAC) is scheduled to be heard by the US Court of Appeals in June. The International Air Transport Association (IATA) is backing the action, as are several international airlines. More than 20 countries have sent a strongly worded diplomatic note to the US Government objecting to the fees, which only apply to commercial aircraft which use US airspace without taking off or landing in the USA.
Canadian operators expect to pay half the $100 million a year the new fees are intended to raise. IATA president Pierre Jeanniot accuses the USA of "behaving like an African country" in imposing the fees with "-no consultation, no gradualism and no transparency" in the FAA's calculation of the cost and value of providing the service.
Jeanniot adds that IATA member airlines do not object to user fees "-if they are going to pay for the service, and not elsewhere, and if they provide value for money".
Canadian airlines complain that the FAA fees, which are distance-based and not scaled with aircraft weight, are seven times those levied by other countries. One sanction being threatened is imposing similarly "inflated" overflight fees on US airlines. NavCanada, the country's newly privatised air traffic services provider, which has just begun the consultation process for new user fees, is described by Jeanniot as "-a good model of how to introduce airspace charges".
Source: Flight International
