Explanatory note

These Regulations amend the Civil Aviation (Route Charges for Navigation Services) Regulations 1989 as follows:—

New unit rates and transatlantic charges are introduced to take account of the new apportionment of Eurocontrol costs between the Member States resulting from the accession of Hungary and Switzerland to the Eurocontrol Convention on 1st July 1992 (regulation 2).

The unit rates in ECUs set out in regulation 2(1) and the amount of the charges in ECUs set out in regulation 2(2) (for transatlantic flights) 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 1991 have been used.

The unit rate has increased for Turkey by 1.4%, for the United Kingdom by 0.3% and for Switzerland by 9.8%. The unit rates for the remaining Member States have either remained the same or decreased by less than 2%.