Which airlines / flights are concerned?
Aviation ETS concerns all aircraft operators of all origins operating flights to, from and within EEA.
Commercial operators that are below the threshold ("De Minimis" rule) are excluded from ETS. This concerns commercial operators operating:
- Fewer than 243 flights per three consecutive four-month periods (i.e. fewer than an average of one round-trip flight to/from the EU per day),
- Or flights with total annual emissions lower than 10,000 tCO2 per year.
Simplified procedures
Non-commercial and commercial operators that emit below 25,000 tCO2 (full scope) per year are also considered small emitters and can use simplified monitoring procedures.
Non-commercial operators with flights fewer than 243 flights per period for 3 consecutive 4-month periods (full scope) and Commercial operators that emit below 3,000 tCO2 (reduced scope) can use simplified monitoring procedures.
Exemptions
Some flights are excluded from the scheme:
- Flights operated by aircraft of less than 5.7 tonnes MTOW
- Flights carrying non-EU Heads of State, Monarchs, Government Ministers
- Military flights
- Search and rescue, fire fighting flights, humanitarian flights and emergency medical service flights
- Visual flight rules (VFR) flights
- Circular flights
- Training flights
- Flights performed exclusively for scientific research
- Flights for the purpose of checking, testing or certifying aircraft or equipment
- Public Service Obligations (PSO) routes within outermost regions, or on PSO routes where the capacity offered does not exceed 30,000 seats per year.
Flights to/from and within Norway, Liechtenstein, and Iceland are included in the scheme.
Flights from EEA to Switzerland are included for the time being.
Flights from EEA to the United Kingdom
Each operator is assigned to an administering Member State. Back to all F.A.Q.
