Increased ATC charges in Canada

Nav Canada has proceeded with its earlier proposal to significantly increase ATC service charges. The new fees were implemented on September 1. The price increase is to cover the loss of income caused by dwindling traffic levels during the Covid pandemic.

Terminal fees have increased by 30 percent; en-route by 26 percent; North Atlantic Track by 48 percent; and international communications by 41 percent. The good news is that the added cost to operators can be deferred over time to help absorb some of the impact.

The NAT and International Comms charges are not really a big deal – those are just flat fees charged per flight. It’s the Terminal Charge and Enroute Charge where the pain will most be felt; don’t be fooled by the figures in the table above – these are just the base rates that get incorporated into bigger equations and multiplied by other factors (MTOW, distance flown, etc).

If you want to test your math skills and take a deep plunge into how these equations work, check out Nav Canada’s Guide To Charges. But if not, here’s a basic example of how the charges have changed:

Aircraft: B777-300
Route: CYUL/Montreal to LFPG/Paris
MTOW: 344.5 metric tonnes
Distance: 1,550 km

	Before 1st Sep 2020	After 1st Sep 2020
Oceanic Charges: NAT	$155	$230
Oceanic Charges: Datalink	$20	$28
Oceanic Charges: Voice	$53	$75
Enroute Charge	$829	$1047
Terminal Charge	$2608	$3411
TOTAL	$3665	$4801

NAV Canada is a private company and not government-funded, and is therefore entirely reliant on the fees it charges to operators. And since most of its costs are fixed, it appears there wasn’t much alternative than to increase these fees, given the huge drop in air traffic over the past few months.

You can view the full schedule of revised fees here:

Increased ATC charges in Canada