Single European Sky is here, now comes the bill

[Pat Malone]

There are five pages on this topic in last month's issue of the AOPA UK magazine General Aviation. See: BALPA denies airspace grab,' 'As free as the air,' and 'Don't price us out of the sky.' If you want a basic understanding of a massively complex topic, that's a good place to look.
I publish the magazine, so I declare an interest here. But it's a bloody good read.
The most significant problem we currently face is that while the consultation period ends on September 17th, nobody can say what happens to the opinions of those who make them known. The UK DFt has no idea; trying to get answers out of Eurocontrol or the European Commission is frustrating beyond belief.
Eurocontrol has a mandate from the EC to devise the Implementing Rules on charges under the Single European Sky (among other things). AOPA has a seat on the Industry Consultation Body that is reviewing the Implementing Rules and is fighting to have references to VFR traffic removed from the Rule.
It is true to say that under Article 6, States have the option of whether or not to charge VFR traffic for access to the skies, but under Article 15, those who do not will have to satisfy the EC that they did not make up their income by charging IRF traffic extra. That effectively makes charging for VFR a fait accompli. There are many other disturbing aspects to the charging regime. For instance, aviation will be expected to pay for all SAR operations, and for certain Met services that have yet to be specified.
Charging has to be seen in the context of Eurocontrol plans for the harmonisation of airspace, the pressure exerted by low-cost airlines for better routings, and in particular, British Airways' current attack on the Finance Advisory Committee of the CAA, which is one of the few pressure points that GA has in the whole regulatory system.
Not that the airlines and AOPA are in different camps on all of this; they agree with AOPA's position on regulatory impact assessments, which are currently (and bizarrely) carried out long after the regulations have been put forward for aproval, instead of when they are being formulated.
Once decisions have been made at European level it is virtually impossible to change them, and unlike JAA rules, they are binding on States. The UK Parliament debated the Single European Sky and decided it was a Good Thing, and now has no authority whatever over the detail, which as we know is where the devil resides.
AOPA attended meetings in Luxembourg on June 3rd and in Brussels on June 7th on airspace designs and charges, in London on June 24th on UK airspace issues, in Brussels on July 13th on the Single Sky Air Traffic Management System. Apart from one of these meetings, where a representative of PPL/IR was present, AOPA was the only GA body there. Especially at this time, when what we are being told by the EC is often significantly different from what we are being told by the CAA, you have to be there, on the ground, to hear what these people are saying, to work out what they really mean, to form alliances and to make your position known.
On airspace charges, AOPA's attempts to have VFR traffic removed from the Rule is the only real hope for GA. It is working with extremely limited resources, in thankless and frustrating circumstances.