While this isn’t a new change, if you\u2019re heading into LFPB it\u2019s a good time to remind yourself of the strict rules for APU usage lest you fall victim to some potentially large fines.<\/p>\n
They\u2019re not mucking around either<\/strong> – two groups are involved. The Air Transport Gendarmerie is responsible for monitoring APU usage at the airport and making sure operators follow the rules. If not, a group known (in English) as the Airport Nuisance Authority (ACNUSA) will get involved and issue fines.<\/p>\n In a recent year, ACNUSA imposed 334 fines for non-APU compliance across French airports. Their haul? \u20ac6.9 million – that\u2019s an average of more than \u20ac20,000 per fine<\/strong><\/span>. This has been confirmed as accurate and current by a local handler. Both the operator and PIC can be held liable.<\/p>\n The French AIP (LFPB AD 2.21) has the full rules – but here\u2019s what you need to know…<\/p>\n Since 2023, the rules at Le Bourget have depended on whether your parking stands have ground facilities or not:<\/p>\n Departing Flights <\/span><\/b>– APU use limited to 10 minutes <\/b>prior to the EOBT if your stand is equipped with ground air and power, or 45 minutes <\/b>on stands without these services.<\/p>\n Arriving Flights<\/span> – <\/b>APU use limited to 5 minutes<\/strong> after arrival if your stand is equipped with ground air and power, or 20 minutes <\/strong>on stands without these services.<\/p>\n There are limited<\/em> exemptions to the rules, these include:<\/p>\n You can enact limited exemptions for APU use, but make you have a solid case for it.<\/p><\/div>\n For BizAv flights, determining whether or not the FBO is “equipped with ground air and power” is a slightly tricky business. One FBO reported the following:<\/strong><\/p>\n We have some mobile GPUs, but not for every space. That creates two interpretations:<\/span><\/p>\n The first one:<\/strong> if we have a mobile GPU available, so it is 5 minutes on arrival and 10 minutes on departure; and if we don\u2019t have it available, it is 20 minutes on arrival and 45 minutes on departure.<\/span><\/p>\n The second one:<\/strong> they consider that as we are not able to provide one GPU to each aircraft, we are in the 20 minutes on arrival and 45 minutes on departure category by default.<\/span><\/p>\n But as the second way is not an \u201cofficial\u201d one, it is only a tolerance, that\u2019s why you might get different replies from the different FBOs about how the rules work here.<\/span><\/p>\n This is at the PIC\u2019s discretion, but you need to be able to justify it<\/strong> using one of the conditions above.<\/p>\n To do so, you\u2019ll need to provide your agent with a declaration for the Gendarmerie that you intend to break the APU rules, and most importantly why<\/strong>.<\/p>\n Here’s what handlers at Le Bourget had to say when we reached out to them directly.<\/p>\n Two things – noise and pollution.<\/p>\n APU\u2019s are noisy<\/strong> things – a typical one produces 113 decibels, an equivalent noise range to a power saw, jackhammer or even a rock concert. Le Bourget is noise sensitive<\/strong> and located in close proximity to residential areas.<\/p>\n Then there’s the dinosaurs we\u2019re burning – carbon dioxide, nitrogen oxides and other nasties are ejected from our APU exhaust. Reducing runtime helps lower emissions<\/strong> and improves air quality near the field. In fact, here is a surprising statistic<\/strong> – approx. 30% of an airport\u2019s carbon emissions come from aircraft on the ground (with APU use being a significant factor).<\/p>\n This is all in line with global and EU climate goals (such as Fit for 55<\/a> or the Paris Agreement<\/a>). Agree or not, we have to play by the rules – or find ourselves paying a hefty price.<\/p>\n Have you been stung or know someone who has? Please share your story with us (as always, our reports are always de-identified). There are several thousand crew out there who will owe you a beer. You can reach us around the clock on news@ops.group<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The summer peak is nearly upon us, and so too is the busiest season for…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":49,"featured_media":27689,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[2296,254,386],"class_list":{"0":"post-27638","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-briefings","8":"tag-apu","9":"tag-lfpb","10":"tag-paris"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ops.group\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27638","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ops.group\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ops.group\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ops.group\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/49"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ops.group\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=27638"}],"version-history":[{"count":23,"href":"https:\/\/ops.group\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27638\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":27683,"href":"https:\/\/ops.group\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27638\/revisions\/27683"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ops.group\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/27689"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ops.group\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27638"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ops.group\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27638"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ops.group\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27638"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Know the time limits<\/h4>\n
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![\"\"](\"https:\/\/ops.group\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/APU.jpg\")
I need an exemption<\/h4>\n
Feedback from local agents<\/h4>\n
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Why the fuss anyway?<\/h4>\n
Have a report to share?<\/h4>\n