Jeppersen have removed RAF Northolt from their civil chart coverage. We hope to reintroduce RAF Northolt into this publication in due course. Until then, up to date Northolt plates are available directly from AIDU. Enquiries should be addressed to: customerservicesmail@aidu.mod.uk

TERMS AND CONDITIONS FOR CIVILIAN AIRCRAFT OPERATORS USE OF RAF NORTHOLT (WITH EFFECT FROM 1 APR 11)

1. DEFINITIONS

Lease Holder

Refers to an occupier of premises under the agreed terms of a Lease or Licence. The Lease includes a certain number of Guaranteed Aircraft Movements (GAMs) at RAF Northolt.

Civilian Users

Is defined as all civilian operators or companies who operate multi-engine, Fixed Wing and Rotary Wing aircraft into or out of Royal Air Force Northolt not undertaking Government or military business.

Aircraft Movement

Is defined as an aircraft take-off orlanding, each counted as a separate movement.

Guaranteed Aircraft Movement (GAM)

Means an aircraft movement allocated to a Lease Holder to conduct business in accordance with the Permitted Use of the Premises.

Pool Movement

Means an aircraft movement that is not a GAM and which is available to all visiting Civilian Users.

Slot Time

Means a specific time allocated for a specific aircraft arrival/departure. This may be subject to change post-allocation.

PPR

Is the Prior Permission Required notice. In the case of civilian aircraft movements to and from RAF Northolt, the minimum PPR notice required is 24 hours.

Station Commander

Shall mean the Commanding Officer of RAF Northolt or his nominated representative.

2. BACKGROUND

2.1 The operation of all Civilian User flights into and out of RAF Northolt is governed by these Terms and Conditions

2.2 These Terms and Conditions may be varied at any time by the Station Commander to reflect any changes, amendments or additions to working practices at RAF Northolt.

2.3 Whilst the Station Commander will use all reasonable endeavours to advise Civilian Users of any changes to the Terms and Conditions, it will be for the Civilian Users to ensure that they are aware of the up-to-date version of the Terms and Conditions. The Station Commander shall not be liable for any loss or damage (whether direct or indirect) arising out of any change in the Terms and Conditions.

2.4 All Civilian Users are to operate in accordance with extant DfT NASP and wider ATSy protocols.

3. OPERATIVE PROVISIONS

3.1 AIRCRAFT MOVEMENT SLOTS

3.1.1 RAF Northolt is limited to 7000 civilian movements per calendar year (landing and take-off counts as 2 movements). Any civilian user movement into and out of RAF Northolt is controlled by the allocation of GAM or Pool movements, irrespective of the nature of the flight, and must be requested in accordance with the procedures laid down in these Standing Terms and Conditions. A series of movements may be bid for; provisional acceptance of these movements does not constitute a contractual arrangement. Each movement will be treated as a discrete occurrence. RAF Northolt accepts no responsibility for any losses whatsoever arising from the cancellation, including at short notice, of any flights into or out of the airfield owing to unforeseen exceptional circumstances (reference also para 4.4).

3.1.2 RAF Northolt requires a minimum of 24-hour PPR notice for all civilian flights to and from RAF Northolt.

3.1.3 PPR numbers, which will include a slot time for the movement, will be allocated by NJC and will be required for all movements; no flight will be permitted without a valid PPR number.

3.1.4 The PPR number is valid for 30 minutes either side of the assigned slot time. If an aircraft has not arrived/departed within this assigned period, and no details of the intended change have been received by NJC staffs, the slot time will be cancelled. Additionally a cancellation fee may be levied and the operator’s privilege to use RAF Northolt will be reviewed.

3.1.5 Any anticipated change to an aircraft’s itinerary must be notified by e-mail to NJC bookings. The allocation of a revised slot time cannot be guaranteed.

3.1.6. GAMs

3.1.6.1 At the commencement of each calendar year, a Lease holder will be allocated a number of GAMs as agreed in the terms of the Lease. The Lease holder may request a profile of GAMs on a monthly basis but, once agreed, this will remain in situ for the rest of the year unless re-negotiated and approved by the Station Commander.

3.1.6.2 Upon the annual profile of GAMs having been agreed, the Lease holder must use the GAMs in the month allocated, but may carry forward 10% of the profiled monthly total to the next month – this carry forward will not be cumulative.

3.1.6.3 Any carry forward of GAMs will only be allowed if Pool movements have not been used by the Lease holder in that month. Any use of Pool movements will be deducted from the monthly permitted carry forward total of GAMs.

3.1.7. POOL MOVEMENTS

3.1.7.1. All remaining movements, up to RAF Northolt’s capacity, are pooled and available to all civilian operators that meet RAF Northolt’s operating criteria.

3.1.8 SLOT ALLOCATION

3.1.8.1 Slot times are issued on a ‘first come first served’ basis. Any operator may apply for any number of slots per day, although no one operator will be allocated 100% of the available daily slots. Allocation will be managed by NJC and operators should note that the number of requests submitted will not necessarily reflect the number of slots allocated.

3.2 AIRFIELD OPENING HOURS (CIVILIAN)

3.2.1 WEEKDAYS (MONDAY – FRIDAY). RAF Northolt airfield opening hours for civilian operations are 0800 to 2000 L (excluding Public/Bank Holidays).

3.2.2 WEEKENDS & PUBLIC HOLIDAYS. At Weekends and on Public Holidays (including the stand-down periods at Christmas and Easter) RAF Northolt will open from 0800-1400L (Sat and Fri PH), 1200-1800L (Sun and Mon PH). Weekend slot times are at a premium; therefore, they will be strictly controlled.

3.2.3 OUT OF HOURS FLIGHTS

Civilian flights operating into/out of RAF Northolt outside of published opening hours will attract a 150% surcharge; all flights at weekends and Public/Bank Holidays will attract a 150% surcharge. Out of hours use is at the discretion and strict approval of the Station Commander at RAF Northolt.

3.3 AIRFIELD OPENING HOURS (MILITARY)

3.3.1 RAF Northolt will open as required for military and governmental purposes and military operations will have primacy at all times. Civilian users should note that short notice military tasks may result in allocated slot times being changed or even cancelled.

3.4.0 BOOKING PROCEDURES

3.4.1Civilian flights must be booked in the day prior to the day of flight. Civilian flights can ONLY be booked in through NJC during their normal opening hours below.

3.4.2 Monday – Friday (EXCLUDING PUBLIC/BANK HOLIDAYS) 0700-2100L

Saturday and Public Holiday Friday 0800-1400L

Sunday and Bank Holiday Monday 1200-1800L

3.4.3 The request is to include: details of the crew, passengers (to include full name, date of birth, nationality, the passport number to be used on the flight and, for crew, their role - captain, co-pilot etc), aircraft type, registration number, and departure or destination airfield.

3.4.4 All flights originating from, or departing to, the Common Travel Area (Isle of Man, Channel Islands, Northern Ireland and Eire) require SO15 (Counter Terrorist Command) approval. Approval is to be obtained by the company and PPR will only be given upon receipt by NJC of this clearance by the required deadline. A minimum of 12 hours notice is required for CTA approvals and any subsequent amendments thereafter in line with Schedule 7 of the Terrorism Act (2000).

3.4.5 The Civilian Operator will be notified of slot allocation as soon as reasonably practicable.

3.4.6 REQUEST FOR A SLOT ON THE DAY OF FLIGHT

3.4.7 Whilst requests for slot times on the day will not routinely be accepted, applications will be reviewed on a case-by-case basis subject to RAF Northolt operational capacity. In the first instance, all requests are to be sent to NJC.

3.5 CHANGES TO FLIGHT DETAILS POST SLOT ALLOCATION

3.5.1Requests to change any pre-booked flight details post allocation of a slot time must be submitted to NJC and are to specify the nature of the change and the reason for the request. Change requests will only be considered if compatible with flying operations at RAF Northolt and acceptance cannot be guaranteed. Refusal of change requests will not entitle any operator to compensation. Changes in passenger / crew manifests for CTA flights will require further SO15 approval within the given timeframes.

3.6 CHANGE REQUESTS

3.6.1 All change requests will be considered on a case-by-case basis and should be submitted to NJC. Civilian Operators should be aware that NJC is not 24-hr manned. Therefore,an immediate response may not be given.

3.7 CANCELLATION OF ANY PRE-BOOKED FLIGHTS

3.7.1 RAF Northolt reserve the right to impose a cancellation fee (50% of the Landing Fee) for any cancellation made after the closure of NJC on the day immediately prior to the flight once a PPR number has been issued. RAF Northolt also reserves the right to impose this cancellation fee where accepted flights for which a PPR number has been allocated fail to turn up, thus resulting in loss of the slot.

3.8 WINTER OPERATIONS

In the event of the forecast of significant snow accumulations at RAF Northolt, the Station Commander will use all reasonable endeavours to give Civilian Operators the opportunity to remove their aircraft from RAF Northolt before the arrival of the inclement weather.

3.9 OPERATIONAL SUPPORT

3.9.1 Civilian flights operating into/out of RAF Northolt outside of published opening hours will attract a 150% surcharge; all flights at weekends and Public/Bank Holidays will attract a 150% surcharge. Out of hours use is at the discretion and strict approval of the Station Commander at RAF Northolt.

3.9.2 As part of the landing fee, RAF Northolt will provide the following services: the landing, 2 hours parking, airfield security, tug and operator, air starts, air stairs nitrogen for tyres, fork lift truck operations, oxygen, aircraft cabin heating, boxer hire and meteorological services, in accordance with published facilities and services.

3.10 AIRCRAFT HANDLING

3.10.1 RAF Northolt will also provide the following services, the cost of which is included in the landing fee:

3.10.1.1 Routine marshalling and aircraft ground handling on Aircraft Servicing Platform 1 (ASP).

3.11 PASSENGER HANDLING

3.11.1 RAF Northolt Air Movements Squadron does not offer a passenger handling service for civilian moves.

3.11.2 A Premier Passenger Service (PPS) is provided by an independent civilian operator, under license (currently Northolt Jet Centre (NJC)). Further details of this service can be obtained from NJC.

3.12 ANIMAL HANDLING

3.12.1 RAF Northolt is not a designated Port of Entry but can accept domestic animals (cats and dogs) on internal UK flights and all departures. However, it should be noted that there are no specific animal facilities e.g. kennels.

3.13 REFUELLING SERVICES

3.13.1 Air BP provides a refuelling service for civilian aircraft operating from RAF Northolt if requested/required.

3.14 CATERING

3.14.1 There are no ‘In Flight’ catering facilities available at RAF Northolt. Permission may (but cannot be guaranteed to) be granted for catering to be delivered to the aircraft. All requests for permission are to be directed to NJC.

3.15 AIRCRAFT MAINTENANCE

3.15.1 For the Lease holder aircraft cleaning, valet service, line maintenance and aircraft servicing is to be carried out at the Premises as defined in the Lease only. For all Civilian Users, routine after flight / before flight activity and rectification of minor, unexpected technical faults may be conducted on the southern ASP. However, such tasks must be capable of being completed within 2 hours and, in the event of a requirement to ‘sanitise’ the southern ASP, all servicing equipment and spares must be removed from the ASP, or temporarily stored inside the aircraft undergoing servicing, within 15 minutes.

3.16 SECURITY

3.16.1 Notwithstanding the requirements of NASP, RAF Northolt cannot accept responsibility for the physical security or safe-keeping of civilian aircraft parked on the Station.

3.17 FLIGHT SAFETY

3.17.1 RAF Northolt will only accept the very highest standards of Flight Safety and any operator failing to meet these standards is liable to have the privilege to use the airfield withdrawn. In particular, operators are reminded that crews are not to remove their own chocks and are not to start engines unless a Northolt Marshaller is in attendance and clearance has been obtained from ATC.

3.18 AIRWORTHINESS

3.18.1 Operators are to ensure that their aircraft are maintained in accordance with the airworthiness directives in their country of registration.

4 CONDITIONS

4.1 RAF Northolt is a military airfield that operates within policy parameters laid down by Her Majesty’s Government. These include opening hours for Civilian Operators 0800-2000L weekdays (excluding Public and Bank Holidays), Saturday and Public Holiday Friday 0800-1400L and Sunday and Bank Holiday Monday 1200-1800L and the non-acceptance of aircraft with more than 29 passengers or for aircraft exceeding the available Military Crash Category. All civilian use activity is only undertaken by utilisation of irreducible spare capacity and therefore Military tasking will always take priority.

4.2 Charter operations are not permitted to be conducted at Royal Air Force Northolt.

4.3 Scheduled Aircraft operations are not permitted to be conducted at RAF Northolt.

4.4 RAF Northolt is not a designated Port of Entry and therefore does not have a permanent HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC), UK Border Agency or SO15 (CTC) presence. Therefore, non-availability of any of these agencies may cause cancellation of slots or change requests to be rejected. Any such decision is outside the control of RAF Northolt and accordingly the Lessee, Civilian Aircraft Operator or Company shall not be entitled to make any claim against the Station Commander or the Lessor.

4.5 NATIONAL EMERGENCY / OPERATIONAL IMPERATIVES

RAF Northolt may be closed in the event of a Local or National Emergency whether declared or not. In addition, the airfield may be closed owing to operational imperatives or other exceptional circumstances. A non-exhaustive list of potential circumstances is as follows:

Loss of appropriate Fire of Crash cover

Repatriation of troops

Loss of power to parts or all of the Station

Interruptions in communications both within the Station and with external agencies

Unforeseen illnesses (e.g. Swine Flu)

In the event of such closure all access to RAF Northolt for any reason whatsoever may be restricted and no liability is accepted for any loss or damage (whether direct or indirect) arising.

Any breach of these operating procedures could constitute grounds for termination of a lease/licence and/or the privilege of operating at RAF Northolt being withdrawn on a temporary or permanent basis.