Charter operators in Europe have carefully weighed up their response to the new European Commission Emission Trading Scheme (ETS) directive. Some, including Execujet, believe it is relevant to their operations but others, such as Gainjet, say they wholly or largely fall outside the directive's scope.

The EC now requires operators of aircraft above 5,700 kgs (12,566 lbs) to submit allowances for CO2 emissions produced during flights to, from, and within the European Union.

The Execujet Aviation Group, which currently has 150 aircraft under management and eight AOCs worldwide, confirms it falls under that new requirement. "All of the Execujet regions that fly to Europe will be required to submit allowances for produced emissions as of 2012. In order to comply with the new directive Execujet will submit the required monitoring plans for emissions and tonne km data. We are on track to comply with the new requirements," the company says.

Gainjet ceo Ramsey Shaban says the criteria is the number of flights a company does in Europe. "At present we are exempt and think that many operators would fall under this category due to the current economic situation."

Gainjet, he points out, has a great many long haul flights around the world. He adds: "All aircraft fall under this requirement once they depart and/or arrive at any EU country while on any trip. Gainjet recently did the Manchester United trip to the Far East. The sectors flown and fuel burnt outside the EU was 75% of their whole trip which does not fall under the emissions rulings."

Flyinggroup which now has bases in Europe in four countries - Belgium, France, Luxembourg and Holland - says it will do what is necessary for compliance. Ben Paindavin, marketing and PR director, says: "We launched our own scheme a while back to encourage operators to compensate for CO2 emissions but the take up was not as comprehensive as we hoped."

Cessna set up a new web site to guide business jet operators through the process of registering their aircraft for flights in European airspace to comply with the EC ETS. The deadline for the application for free allocations was 31 August. All Citations are covered by the new EU directive except for the Mustang, CJ1 and CJ2.

The company explains: "There is an 'auto-fill' aspect to the Cessna versions of the applications, whereby the operator selects the aircraft model and the application automatically populates the relevant boxes with appropriate technical data."

It adds: "Under ETS, owners of aircraft with a takeoff weight of more than 12,566 lbs who regularly fly their aircraft to EU countries must begin reporting annual emissions starting in 2010, and by 2012 must use carbon allocations for all flights in EU airspace. Operators already identified by the EU are required to register an annual and specific emissions plan."

Cessna recommended that operators who plan to begin operations into EU airspace next year register as well, and at the same time qualify for free allocations to lower planned emission fees. Without free allocations, operators have to purchase or trade for allocations.

"There are a lot of moving pieces in this programme and we want to do what we can to ensure Cessna operators are, at the minimum, registered in time to qualify for allocations," said Tom Grace, Cessna director, technical information services. "We also are developing monitoring programmes available to Cessna operators to keep them in compliance."