On this basis you might be asking yourself that surely the further the airline flies the more it pays in overflight fees, right? Well, yes and no. It all depends on which country’s airspace you fly through, their charges \ tariffs and the distance travelled through each airspace. To illustrate the variance in these charges, we’ve chosen three example routes from London Heathrow Airport, with one route heading West, one heading South and one heading East.
For the purposes of our analysis, we are assuming there are no conflicts and that all airspace is open equally to all to allow a great circle routing (the shortest distance between) Heathrow and each destination to be flown.
The routes we have chosen are London Heathrow (LHR\EGLL) to:
- Los Angeles (LAX\KLAX) distance 8,740 km
- Johannesburg (JNB\ FAOR) distance 9,056 km
- Shanghai (PVG\ZSPD) distance 9,221 km
We have assumed a Boeing 777-300ER Aircraft with a Max Take Off Weight (MTOW) of 340 tonnes is flying these routes. Our analysis excludes fuel costs and airport charges and focuses upon the enroute / overflight navigation fees and charges only. For ease of comparison all cost data is expressed in US dollars.
As can be seen in Chart 1, the enroute / overflight navigation fees and charges are lowest for the Heathrow - Los Angeles route. Whereas the Heathrow – Shanghai route charges are over 5 times more expensive – disproportionate to the relative distances flown.
Chart 1: Total En-Route \ Over Flight Charges by Route
Chart 2 shows these enroute / overflight navigation fees and charges as a cost per km figure.
Chart 2: En-Route \ Over Flight Charges per KM by Route
Looking at our Heathrow-Los Angeles example in more detail, the aircraft flies over 5 countries/regions airspace (United Kingdom, Ireland, Shanwick - Ireland & UK, Canada and United States). Chart 3 shows just 8% of the total distance is spent in United Kingdom airspace yet this accounts for 52% of the cost. At the other end of spectrum 25% of the total distance is in United States airspace yet the cost is zero as the aircraft is landing in the United States.
Chart 3: Heathrow - Los Angeles % Of Distance Spent In Each Airspace And % Of En-Route Navigation Cost
This article was prepared using our en route charges data from our AirportCharges product. The en-route charges calculator allows our customers to easily compare the cost of enroute / overflight fees and charges for any route using any combination of airline and aircraft.
Banner image via Adobe Stock
