CAA AOC Charges Consultation

An important issue which affects most UK helicopter operators is the CAAs proposed charges for 2009/10 for AOC holders which can be found here, the main consultation document can be found here.

The costs are set to increase astronomically in the next few years, with some operators this year that I know of have seen bills increasing by 600-700%. If these proposals are seen through this will almost certainly result in the demise of more small companies.

Two typical examples follow with the numbers changed slighty to maintain confidentiality.

A small operator with 3 helicopters whose fees last year were in the region of £1150 will next year pay nearly £6,500

A larger operator who has 7 or 8 helicopters will see his fees increase from about £1300 in 2007 to over £15000 (yes an extra zero) in 2009.

The natural side effect of closure or reduction of AOC operations will probably be a similar reduction in the availability of flying schools and training organisations, which several AOC holders also double as. This has clearly wide reaching effects on the UK helicopter industry as a whole and should encourage private pilots, engineers, indeed anyone connected with the industry to make comment to the CAA.

Glenn Curtis MD of Elite Helicopters has written to most of the AOC operators asking them to voice their concerns on the CAA website, I know that some Chief Pilots haven't seen these or are not even aware of how high the charges are likely to be in the next few years, so they are reproduced here for reference with Glenn's permission.

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I have created an AOC charges checker in the form of an Excel Spreadsheet, it can be found here.

A lot of people within the industry know that I have the contacts and the delivery mechanism (you're looking at it) to get this message across to a larger group of people and asked me to, so I have agreed to try and do so.

The intention is not to incite riot or revolt within the industry or to give FOI(H) the department or the individual FOIs themselves a hard time (which would really just be shooting the messenger), but to bring to the attention of the financial policy makers that they are going to put several UK AOC helicopter operators out of business in the next couple of years purely due to a policy which creates an unsustainable financial environment.

Glenn is lead to believe that although industry associations such as the BHA or HCGB may comment on the proposals they are seen as just one voice, which is why we need as many people as possible to comment in a sensible and reasoned manner on the CAA website.

The page on the CAA website were comments can be left is CAA Charges Consultation | Consultations | CAA

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Scroll down the page and fill in the paragraph text box the paragraph number concerned is 4.1.2

The document concerned is the SRG Charges 2009 / 10 Consultation document, choose this in the drop down box.

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