National Air Traffic Services (NATS), the UK’s major provider of air traffic services, has today submitted its proposed domestic en-route charge for 2005. The charge, filed with EUROCONTROL in Brussels, will come into effect on January 1 next year.
For 2005, the NATS element of the National Unit Rate is to decrease by 3.8 per cent to £48.47 per Chargeable Service Unit (CSU), from £50.36 in 2004.
CSUs are calculated from the distance flown by an aircraft in controlled airspace and its weight. All other European air traffic service providers use the same formula to determine their charges to airspace users.
In the UK, the National Unit Rate is paid by airlines in Euros and comprises two elements: the NATS unit charge; and levies added by the Civil Aviation Authority and Department for Transport. The proposed National Unit Rate for 2005 is £56.35. The rate for 2004 is £57.94.
NATS also reported today that CSU volumes for the six months to 30 September 2004 were 5.02 million, a growth of 7.3 per cent on the same period in 2003
(4.68million). CSU volumes for the period between April to August 2004, were 2.5 per cent above the same period in 2001, prior to the terrorist attacks on the United States.
This reflects the significant growth of the low cost carriers, combined with a growing recovery in the transatlantic market. The transatlantic market generates about 42 per cent of NATS’ revenue.
NATS is required by the terms of its licence to provide a forecast of the NATS element of the National Unit Rate for 2006. The Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) is currently undertaking a review of the charge control conditions which will apply for the calendar years 2006 to 2010. Were the current charge control conditions to continue, the NATS element of the National Unit Rate for 2006 would be £48.58 and the National Unit Rate would be £56.48.
A copy of the Eurocontrol submission is available on the NATS website at www.nats.co.uk.
