Hi/Low cap malarky
THIS IS RPT ONLY as per CAO82.3 low cap and CAO82.5 high cap.... and RPT is a purely Australian thing, the rest of the planet is Part 121/125/135 passenger carrying ops, no different to buying a single seat or the whole damm plane
CAO82.1 applies to Charter and there is no definition of Hi/Low cap for charter
The definition as per CAO82 high capacity aircraft means an aircraft that is certified as having a maximum seating capacity exceeding 38 seats or a maximum payload exceeding 4 200 kg.
Defined by the manufacturer certification data which states the certified maximum payload irrespective of aircraft actual BEW as this varies between customer fit.
This was tested and defined by Eastern Region some time back to the point of threatened litigation before calmer heads prevailed.
It really only applies to a few RPT operators on the cusp of the limit (CAO82.3 low cap and CAO82.5 high cap) and should cease to exist once Part 121 is fully enacted anyway.
SF340 (Rex/Corporate) - Low Cap
DH8A (Skytrans/Maroomba) - Low Cap
DH8A/B/C (Qlink/Skippers) - High Cap
FWIW - E135/145 & CRJ are all above 4200kg payload so Hi Cap RPT, E135BJ is low cap as the max payload is limited because of the additional fuel capacity.