The CAA charges appear to be being implemented as proposed (officially now).
http://www.caa.co.uk/docs/1807/SRG%2...ent%202008.pdf
It was duly noted that the helicopter industry will be adversely affected by it and commented on, lucky us
.
A quote below from the document with my emboldening.
3 CAA Charges Consultation 2008 – CAA Response
CAA’s responses to the consultation
The CAA responses to the main points raised from within the submissions received are detailed below:
3.1 The effect of the AOC annual charge proposals in light of the current economic downturn will decimate the AOC helicopter industry.
The charge proposals included within the consultation document represent the continued transition to cost related charging, the principles of which were agreed and discussed at the time of the Costs and Charges Review1 and further developed when the ‘Next steps’ review was discussed and endorsed at the joint industry / CAA Safety Regulation Finance Advisory Committee. The 2009/10 charging proposals move the charges to 60% of the cost of undertaking the activity to oversee the AOC holder and are further supplemented by a concession for AOC holders within annual charge bands C2, E1 and F1, where the increase would be capped to no more than £1,000 per aircraft when compared to the 2008/09 annual charge.
The effect of these AOC proposals will see the cross subsidy within the AOC Scheme fall by £1.2m to £1.5m