Eurocontrol asks if joint pan-European system of route charges is still fit for purpose

In its latest “Think Paper” Eurocontrol assesses whether the European Route Charges System, which has effectively funded en-route air navigation services (ANS) across the pan-European network for 50 years, is still fit for the future in the wake of a pandemic that has put enormous pressure on the way these services are financed. Eurocontrol concludes that pre-pandemic, the Route Charges System had “flexibly adapted and evolved over the years, with Eurocontrol’s Central Route Charges Office billing and collecting route charges from airspace users with an enviable 99.7% recovery rate. Those monies collected in turn covered the cost of providing en-route