Civil Aviation Act 2012

77 Crown application

(1) Chapter 2 of this Part binds the Crown to the extent that it applies or modifies provisions of the Competition Act 1998, subject to section 73 of that Act.

(2) The following provisions of this Part bind the Crown—

(a) Chapter 1, other than sections 50 to 52, and

(b) Chapter 3,

subject to subsections (3) and (5) to (9).

(3) Chapters 1 and 3 of this Part do not affect Her Majesty in her private capacity.

(4) Subsection (3) is to be read as if section 38(3) of the Crown Proceedings Act 1947 (meaning of Her Majesty in her private capacity) were contained in this Part.

(5) Nothing in Chapters 1 and 3 of this Part prevents a person from requiring payment of, or recovering, charges in respect of services provided in the course of carrying out exempt Crown functions.

(6) If the operator of an airport area (“area C”) exercises overall responsibility for its management in the course of carrying out exempt Crown functions—

(a) section 7(2) (requirement to make market power determination) does not apply in respect of area C,

(b) section 14(4) (deemed application for licence where airport area becomes dominant) does not apply in relation to the operator, and

(c) the absence of a licence in respect of area C does not prevent a person from requiring payment of, or recovering, charges in respect of services provided in area C or another area that forms part of the same airport.

(7) Nothing in Chapters 1 and 3 of this Part prevents a person from requiring payment of, or recovering, charges in respect of services provided in an exempt Crown airport area.

(8) The absence of a licence in respect of an exempt Crown airport area does not prevent a person from requiring payment of, or recovering, charges in respect of services provided in another area that forms part of the same airport.

(9) A licence must not include conditions relating to services provided in an exempt Crown airport area.

(10) For the purposes of this section, an airport area is an exempt Crown airport area if—

(a) it consists of all or part of a small airport,

(b) the operator of the airport area is the Crown or a person acting on behalf of the Crown, and

(c) the airport area is exempted for the purposes of this section by the Secretary of State by regulations.

(11) For the purposes of this section, an airport is a small airport during a calendar year if in the previous calendar year—

(a) the number of passenger movements at the airport did not exceed 5 million, or

(b) the airport was not open to commercial traffic.

(12) In this section—

• “exempt Crown functions” means the following functions to the extent that they are carried out by or on behalf of the Crown—

  (a)

  customs functions within the meaning of Part 1 of the Borders, Citizenship and Immigration Act 2009,

  (b)

  functions relating to immigration, asylum or nationality,

  (c)

  police functions, and

  (d)

  other functions exempted for the purposes of this section by the Secretary of State by regulations;

• “open to commercial traffic” and “passenger movements” have the same meaning as in Directive 2009/12/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 11 March 2009 on airport charges.