Flying over Iran? First battle the fee

Fastidious passengers who obsessively compare inflight services –– does Air France offer more leg room? Is the smoked salmon more succulent on Lufthansa? –– should perhaps learn a little more about the terms of passage. Simply put, the overflying fee is the whopping charge levied by a sovereign nation for allowing foreign aircraft to use its airspace. It's like a toll tax in the sky, ostensibly to cover the cost of providing navigational aid to aircraft, but that's just a handy excuse to make airlines pay.
Each country has its own unique way of deciding how much to charge. While some levy a fixed fee, others resort to more complex calculations. If a strip of land is sandwiched between two strife-torn countries, an airline has to pay more to use this ‘safe' corridor. Iran, for one, squeezed between Iraq and Afghanistan, charges a bomb — in 2006, it had an average of 350 over-flights a day, which earned it a neat $650,000 to $700,000 daily. The average cost per flight over Iran works out to Rs 92,590.
If it isn't geopolitics, it's the strategic location of a country that gives it leverage. Chile charges planes on the basis of their entry and exit points – since most planes enter its airspace from the north, all northern entry and exit routes are charged almost double of those flying in from and out to the east. Iceland has raised direction-sensitivity to a fine art, with different rates for the latitudes and longitudes that an aircraft flies past. China charges in US dollars: in 2002, the fee was $1 per km. The US levies a toll of about $33.72 per 190 km. India, Indonesia and 30 nations in Europe that are jointly under Eurocontrol have their own formula based on the weight of aircraft and distance travelled.
India-Europe flights have three route options. The first is a northern route that takes you over Afghanistan and the CIS countries, the second is over Pakistan and Iran, the third over Dubai and Turkey. For an India-US flight across the Atlantic, there are six potential routes, one of which is suggested every day by the US authorities, depending on the weather. "This route is provided to pilots a day in advance and gives the best fuel savings,'' said a senior commander.
National carrier Air India will have a new flight-path system in place next year whose wisdom, it hopes, will save it $15 million annually.
26/09/09 Manju V/Times of India

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Categories: Foreign Sep 2009, Indian Aviation- In General Sep 2009