Civil Aviation Act 1982

73 Charges for air navigation services etc. U.K.

(1) The Secretary of State may make regulations—

(a) for requiring the payment to him or the CAA or Euro-control of charges, of such amounts and in such currencies as may be prescribed, in respect of air navigation services which, either in pursuance of international arrangements or otherwise, are provided for aircraft by him, the CAA, Eurocontrol or any other person or by any persons jointly;

(b) for requiring the payment to any international organisation other than Eurocontrol or to any government outside the United Kingdom of charges of such amounts as may be prescribed in respect of air navigation services provided for aircraft, being services provided by that international organisation or government, as the case may be, in pursuance of an agreement to which the United Kingdom is a party.

[F1 (1A) Regulations under subsection (1)(a) above may—

(a) prescribe any charges to which the regulations apply in units of account defined by reference to more than one currency; and

(b) make provision for any charges prescribed in such units to be paid and recovered either in such units or in their equivalent, as determined in accordance with the regulations, in such currencies as may be prescribed.]

(2) The Secretary of State may make regulations—

(a) providing for the payment of an annual charge of such amount as may be prescribed to the CAA in respect of any aircraft for which there is in force at the time the charge becomes payable a certificate of airworthiness; and

(b) requiring the CAA to refund so much of any such payment made in respect of an aircraft by any person as is equal to the amount which that person becomes liable (whether by virtue of regulations under this section or otherwise) to pay to Eurocontrol in respect of so much of any flight made by that aircraft as is made over the United Kingdom during the period of twelve months commencing with the date on which the payment to the CAA became due.

(3) The liability for any charges payable by virtue of regulations under subsection (1) above may be imposed upon the operators or owners of aircraft for which the air navigation services in question are available (whether or not they are actually used or could be used with the equipment installed in the aircraft) or upon those operators and owners or upon the managers of aerodromes used by such aircraft, or partly upon those operators or owners or operators and owners and partly upon those managers.

(4) Regulations under subsection (1) above may provide for charges payable by virtue of the regulations to be so payable elsewhere than in the United Kingdom and to be recoverable in the United Kingdom wherever they are payable (without prejudice to their recovery elsewhere); and liability for any charges payable by virtue of regulations under that subsection may be imposed upon the operator [F2 or owner] of any aircraft whether or not it is registered in the United Kingdom, whether or not it is in or over the United Kingdom at the time when the services to which the charges relate are provided and whether or not those services are provided from a place in the United Kingdom.

(5) Regultions under subsection (2) above may—

(a) impose liability for any charges payable by virtue of the regulations upon the operators or owners of the aircraft in respect of which the charge is payable; and

(b) impose that liability whether or not the aircraft is registered in the United Kingdom and whether or not it is in the United Kingdom during the year in respect of which the charge is payable.

(6) The charges to be prescribed under this section shall—

(a) in the case of charges payable to the Secretary of State or the CAA, be at such rates or of such amounts as the Secretary of State may, with the consent of the Treasury, determine;

(b) in the case of charges payable to Eurocontrol, be at such rates as the Secretary of State may determine in pursuance of tariffs which are either—

(i) approved under any international agreement to which the United Kingdom is a party; or

(ii) in the opinion of the Secretary of State likely to be approved before or within one month after the date when the regulations come into force, under any international agreement to which the United Kingdom is likely to be party before or within one month after that date;

(c) in the case of charges payable to an international organisation other than Eurocontrol or to a government outside the United Kingdom, be at such rates as the Secretary of State may determine in pursuance of tariffs which are either—

(i) approved under the relevant international agreement with the United Kingdom; or

(ii) in the opinion of the Secretary of State likely to be approved under that agreement before or within one month after the date when the regulations come into force;

and the regulations may prescribe different charges in respect of aircraft of different classes or descriptions or in respect of aircraft used in different circumstances, may provide for the payment, with any charges or separately, of interest on the charges in respect of any period during which the charges were due but unpaid and may dispense with charges in such cases as may be prescribed by or determined under the regulations.

(7) For the purpose of facilitating the assessment and collection of charges payable by virtue of regulations under this section, the regulations may make provision for requiring operators of aircraft or managers of aerodromes—

(a) to make such records of the movements of aircraft, and of such other particulars relating to aircraft, as may be prescribed, and to preserve those records for such period as may be prescribed;

(b) to produce for inspection at such times as may be prescribed and—

(i) in the case of charges payable by virtue of regulations made under subsection (1)(a) or (2) above, by such officers of the Secretary of State or of the CAA or of Eurocontrol as may be prescribed, and

(ii) in the case of charges payable by virtue of regulations made under subsection (1)(b) above, by such officers of the international organisation or government, as the case may be, to whom the charges are payable or of the Secretary of State or of the CAA as may be prescribed,

any records which are required by the regulations or an Air Navigation Order to be preserved by those operators or managers;

(c) to furnish such particulars of any such records as may be prescribed—

(i) in the case of charges payable by virtue of regulations made under subsection (1)(a) or (2) above, to the Secretary of State or to the CAA or to Eurocontrol; and

(ii) in the case of charges payable by virtue of regulations made under subsection (1)(b) above, to the international organisation or government, as the case may be, to whom the charges are payable or to the Secretary of State or the CAA.

(8) The requirements mentioned in subsection (7) above may be imposed upon the operator of any aircraft whether or not it is registered in the United Kingdom, whether or not it is in or over the United Kingdom at the time when the services to which the charges relate are provided and whether or not those services are provided from a place in the United Kingdom.

(9) Regulations under this section may contain provision for regulating the disposal by the CAA of sums received by it by virtue of the regulations.

(10) In this section—

• “manager”, in relation to an aerodrome, means a person who is in charge of it or holds a licence granted in respect of it by virtue of section 60 above;

• “record” includes, in addition to a record in writing—

  (a)

  any disc, tape, sound-track or other device in which sounds or signals are embodied so as to be capable (with or without the aid of some other instrument) of being reproduced therefrom;

  (b)

  any film, tape or other device in which visual images are embodied so as to be capable (as aforesaid) of being reproduced therefrom; and

  (c)

  any photograph;

and any reference to a copy of a record includes in the case of a record falling within paragraph (a) only of this definition, a transcript of the sounds or signals embodied therein, in the case of a record falling within paragraph (b) only of this definition, a still reproduction of the images embodied therein, and in the case of a record falling within both those paragraphs, such a transcript together with such a still reproduction.

Textual Amendments

F1 S. 73(1A) inserted by Civil Aviation (Air Navigation) Charges Act 1989 (c. 9, SIF 9), s. 1

F2 Words inserted (retrospectively) by Civil Aviation (Eurocontrol) Act 1983 (c. 11, SIF 9), s. 3(2)