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​How to apply for free allowances from the Special Reserve?

For Phase III of EU ETS (2013-2020), 3% of the total quantity of free aviation allowances are set aside in a ‘special reserve’ for aircraft operators.

The ‘special reserve’ is reserved for:
 
  • New entrants: new operators who commenced flight activity after 2010; and,
  • Fast-growing operators: operators who have had a growth in tonne-kilometre (tkm) activity in excess of 18% on average annually between 2010 and 2014, which is equivalent to a total growth of 93.8% over the 2010-2014 period.
Aircraft operators that qualify as new entrants or fast-growing operators who would like to apply for additional free allowances from the Special Reserve must submit a tkm plan to their Competent Authority as soon as possible.

Please note that the application for the special reserve is optional.

The timetable for the ‘special reserve’ is:

2013: deadline for tkm plan application to the Competent Authority (CA).
2014: Monitoring of tkm data.
2015: 31 March - deadline for tkm report submission to CA; 30 June - deadline for eligibility application to CA; 30 December - deadline for submission of applications to the European Commission (EC).
2016: 30 June - deadline for benchmark decision; three months after the decision - calculation and publication of allocation.
2017: 28 February: aviation allowances from the Special Reserve issued for the first time.

The free allowances new entrants will receive from this special reserve will be proportional to the 2014 tkm data they will report. For fast-growing operators, only the tkm data reported over the 18% average annual growth rate (or 93.8% total growth) will be taken into account to calculate the free allowances they will receive. In both cases their activity should not be in whole or in part a continuation of an aviation activity previously performed by another aircraft operator.

The MRR-General guidance for aircraft operators provides support on tkm monitoring and the corresponding monitoring plan.

Aircraft operators are recommended to contact their Competent Authority for tkm plan submission deadline information.
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