History of the Central Route Charges Office

The Central Route Charges Office (CRCO) was established in 1971 to operate a centralised system for collection of route charges for the seven EUROCONTROL Member States at that time.

The newly-created system collected a single payment on behalf of its Member States from a given airspace user for all flights performed in their airspace and disbursed it to the national authorities.

The route charges formula takes account of both the weight of the aircraft and the distance flown over the EUROCONTROL area. In 1998, a new calculation method was introduced. It changed the distance calculation from one based on a standard, most frequently used route, to a flight-by-flight route calculated per State overflown. This made for a more equitable calculation of the bill and it also meant that the CRCO’s flight data had to be matched with route information obtained from the Central Flow Management Unit (CFMU).

Over time, a number of improvements were made to the accounting and treasury area. The introduction of a new electronic bank reporting system in 1995 speeded up the processing of bank transactions from 4 days to 1 day. A process allowing payment of small amounts by credit card was introduced in 2001.

The CRCO has been working in close cooperation with a number of States in trying to obtain stronger legislation for judicial measures against non-paying users. The introduction of interest on late payment at a penal rate has also helped influence bad payers, which is naturally to the benefit of good payers.

The CRCO’s activities have both expanded and become more diverse over the last 20 years. This happened in response to demands from States and air navigation service providers (ANSPs) to bill and collect charges and benefit from economies of scale.

38 of the 39 current EUROCONTROL Member States participate in the route charges system.

EUROCONTROL has currently the following bi-lateral agreements:

• terminal navigation charges (12 EUROCONTROL Member States)
• communication charges (1 EUROCONTROL Member State)
• air navigation charges (1 EUROCONTROL Member State and 4 Non-Member States)
• of which 3 agreements cover both route and terminal charges.

For 40 years, the Central Route Charges Office has been providing the States and their air navigation service providers (ANSPs) with a stable, transparent and cost-effective funding mechanism for the provision of en route ATM services and the support of ATM developments.

Today the system has a pan-European dimension.