We’ve been working with customers who are going through the procedure for gaining a licence to fly commercially from the UK CAA – a Permission For Commercial Operation (PFCO) and thought a reminder about the April 2017 changes to the CAA fees.
If you’re in the process of applying, or thinking about applying to operate commercially, you may not be aware that the cost of the application rose on 1st April 2017. Usually, these charges are outside of any course fees that you will pay for ground school and examination etc.
On the 1st April 2017, the UK CAA brought into effect their new charges for General Aviation.
The fee for an initial application for a sub 20kg UAS, for a standard PFCO permission is now £173.
|
Application Type |
Initial Charge |
Renewal Charge |
|
SUA (20kg mass or less without fuel) – ‘Standard’ permission or exemption (See Note 3) |
£173 |
£130 |
|
SUA (20 kg mass or less without fuel) – ‘Non Standard’ permission or exemption (See Note 4) |
£1,211 |
£130 |
|
UAS >20kg to 150 kg (mass without fuel) – permission or exemption |
£1,211 (See Note 5) |
£346 |
|
UAS > 150 kg (mass without fuel) – permission or exemption |
£1,211 (See Note 6) |
£346 |
|
Special UAS projects (See Note 8) |
£1,211 (See Note 7) |
N/A |
|
Issue of a duplicate permission/exemption |
£57 |
N/A |
Notes referred to in the table above:
3. ‘Standard Permission’ means any simple approval to perform commercial operations in accordance with ANO 2016 article 94(5) and/or a permission to operate an SUA of 7kg or less within a congested area in accordance with ANO 2016 article 95(2)(a).
4. ‘Non Standard’ permission/exemption means any approval which involves the assessment of an Operating Safety Case.
5. Plus charges in excess of 7 work hours at £173 per hour up to a maximum of £10,000 per year or part of a year.
6. Plus charges in excess of 7 work hours at £173 per hour up to a maximum of £20,000 per year or part of a year.
7. Plus charges in excess of 7 work hours at £173 per hour up to a maximum of £100,000 per year or part of a year.
8. A Special UAS Project involves consideration by the CAA to develop the existing framework under which the current regulation of UAS is undertaken. Plus charges in excess of 7 hours would be charged at £173 per hour up to a maximum of £100,000 per year or part of the year in which the CAA investigations take place apply.
9. All excess hours would be invoiced monthly in arrears by the CAA to the applicant and payable on demand.
10. Renewal of a permission/exemption assumes that there are no changes involved. Renewals which involve changes in either documentation or operating requirements will be charged as Variations
11. Reinstigation of expired permissions will be charged at the full rate as if they were new permissions.
(Extract taken from the full document – “Official Record Series 5 CAA Scheme of Charges (General Aviation”), which can be found here)
DO NOT FORGET OTHER RECENT CHANGES TO THE PFCO PROCESS:
– CAA insurance period requirements when applying and renewing – See original blog post here.
– CAA SRG1320 form you must use latest issue of this form – Issue 7 – See original blog post here.