112.3, ALL of the following conditions must exist for an air service,
passenger and/or
cargo, to be defined as RPT under CAR 206 (1) (c):
fixed schedules;
and
fixed terminals;
and
specific routes;
and
available for use by persons generally.
"Fixed schedules" and
"Available for use by persons generally" is not defined in either the Act or CAR's, however could be given a normal meaning:
Operated to a pre determined schedule, over a common route, with some element of commonality in time - e.g. daily, weekly over the same route on each flight.
Travel available to any person on payment of a pre determined fare, which is not an exclusive whole of aircraft charter rate. Of course, many operators try to circumvent this through an
"interposed entity" - a travel agent, another company, or a freight agency - however in my mind, interposed entity or not, if anyone can purchase a "ticket"
from any source, this would qualify. (Indeed, I suspect scheduled freight and bank runs should be defined as RPT under CAR 206, as freight space is available to persons generally, albeit by an interposed entity, the freight company.)
"Fixed Terminals", I suspect it was intended to mean a substantial airport passenger or freight departure building. CASA seem to have no idea as they have never been able to provide me with a legal definition.
"Specific Routes", again, no definition in the Act or CARs. However, CAR 206 is almost a word for word re-write of one of the old pre 1988 ANR's in the series ANR197 to ANR203. (Can't locate my old ANR's). In days of old (particularly during the Two Airline era), RPT service (or airline) routes were defined on navigation charts and gave the track heading and distance between reporting points. If the anticipated route was not defined on a navigation chart, it could be operated regularly (on a fixed schedule) by a charter operator, under an ANR 203 Exemption. The routes which were specified on the navigation charts could be operated by an air charter operator, but there were various restrictions in time, originally once in 28 days, later the "eight hour/four hour" rule applied. (i.e. Could not be operated within eight hours before, or four hours after a scheduled airline service.)
In the matter involving Seaview, I seem to recall His Honour tried to unravel the meaning of CAR 206, however I think the final guilty verdict was based on NSW State legislation, which required an RPT operator to hold a NSW RPT License.
I hope this thread attracts the attention of our resident aviation lawyer,
Creampuff as he has some experience with this area of the CAR's.
Mind you, Creamie and I could never agree (on anything) but it would be very interesting to hear his definition of these terms.
CAR210 is another interesting piece of regulation. I suspect that express freight companies (not being AOC holders), which advertise their inter city air freight service on TV and in the media, and conduct scheduled bank and freight runs using sub contract air charter operators, may be contravening CAR210.