Update of Overflight Fee Rates

This final rule updates existing overflight fee rates using Fiscal Year (FY) 2013 FAA cost accounting and air traffic activity data. Overflight fees are charges for aircraft flights that transit U.S.-controlled airspace, but neither land in nor depart from the United States. Overflight fee rates were last updated in 2011. As a result, the FAA is not recovering the full cost of the services it provides. The FAA is increasing the rates for enroute and oceanic overflights based on Fiscal Year (FY) 2013 cost and air traffic activity data. The FAA is phasing in this rate increase over 3 years in equal percentage terms. This is a less burdensome approach than the alternative of phasing in the new rates in equal absolute terms, and is the same methodology used in the previous rulemaking. Finally, the FAA is making several organizational and clarifying revisions to the overflight fee requirements.