US Government plans to raise $100 million annually from foreign carriers by charging for use of Federal Aviation Administration-controlled oceanic airspace have raised a storm of protest from 20 governments, and most of the 170 carriers which the International Air Transport Association says would be affected.
Airlines fear that the move could spark an airways-charges war with other countries, particularly Japan, which does not charge overflight fees. Japanese carriers are among the worst-hit by the new rule.
The new charges, introduced on 19 May, are levied on all non-US carriers operating in US airspace without landing in US territory, and principally affect flights from Australia, New Zealand and Canada to Asian destinations. The carriers protest, however, that they are not levied against US carriers using the same airways, that the ó37.5 per kilometre charge is close to the ó42.5 per kilometre charge in busier US domestic airspace and that, because of the lesser services provided on oceanic routes, they will effectively be subsidising US domestic airways services.
A survey by Hong Kong-based Orient Aviation identifies the hardest-hit carriers as Qantas (with charges annually of $4.69 million); Japan Air Lines ($3.9 million); Cathay Pacific ($2.8 million); Air New Zealand ($2.1million); and Korean ($1.8 million). Others hit include Air Niugini, All Nippon, Ansett, Asiana, Philippine Airlines and Singapore Airlines.
Richard Stirland, director-general of the Asia Pacific Airlines Association (APAA), formerly the Orient Airlines Association, has condemned the move as "-the kind of action we expect from some crumbling dictatorship, not from the Congress of the USA".
APAA commercial director Carlos Chou says that affected nations could now seek to have much of the Pacific airspace now under FAA control re-allocated to other countries. Stirland says: "The US-controlled oceanic airspace projects right across the mid-Pacific, like a gigantic toll gate through which airline services between the north and south Pacific must pass. The consultation process, so far, is a joke."
Twenty embassies in Washington filed arguments jointly in early October with the US Court of Appeals, claiming that the charges are discriminatory against non-US carriers and are a violation of procedures. Numerous individual carriers have filed arguments, comments and objections. The APAA, along with 19 of its member airlines, has filed a joint protest.
Although the operators have rejected the FAA's claim that US carriers pay their share of oceanic airways costs through US taxes, the APAA has recommended that its members pay "under protest".
Source: Flight International
