Applying for preferential treatment for civil aircraft and for goods to be used in them

Preferential treatment has been granted in EU’s customs legislation and in regulations by the Commission for the import of civil aircraft and goods to be used in them. 

  • The term civil aircraft refers to aircraft used by civilians, such as aeroplanes or helicopters, which are registered in a register for civil aircraft. 
  • Goods to be used in a civil aircraft are parts, components and other goods, which are installed or could be installed in a civil aircraft or in a part thereof. 

What options do you have for applying for preferential treatment?

  • If you, for example, import parts for an aircraft that has an authorised release certificate (EASA Form 1 or some other certificate accepted as equivalent), you can use an autonomous tariff suspension for the parts, 
  • If you import a civil aircraft that has a current registration certificate, you can apply for a facilitated procedure for obtaining preferential treatment for civil aircraft on import.
  • If you import civil aircraft and goods to be used in them, you can use preferential treatment based on the end-use procedure if the prerequisites for the procedure are fulfilled. More information and instructions for declaring are available on the webpage about the end-use procedure.

Read more about the autonomous tariff suspension, the facilitated procedure and customs declaration:

Autonomous tariff suspension when importing goods for civil aircraft

So that you can use a temporary autonomous tariff suspension, the imported item must be of a kind that can be used in a civil aircraft. The commodity code of the item must have the footnote CD333. In Fintaric, e.g. the text “Airworthiness tariff suspension” is shown in connection with the commodity code under “Measure”.

Furthermore, the item must have an authorised release certificate (EASA Form 1 or some other certificate accepted as equivalent), which must be presented to Customs on request. If the goods imported for repair or maintenance have lost their airworthiness status, the number of a previous authorised release certificate can be entered in the customs declaration. If the number of the certificate is not known when the goods are imported, you can also provide it in a supplementary customs declaration. If you know that the original certificate accompanies the goods, you can provide a customs declaration in one stage and, instead of the number of the certificate, you can enter the reference number from the records in the customs declaration. The original authorised release certificate provided in the customs declaration must always be archived. 

The EU Commission has granted preferential tariff treatment by Council Regulation (EU) 2018/581Link to an external website and by Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) 2018/1517 for certain goods to be incorporated or used for civil aircraft. The old Council Regulation (EC) No 1147/2002 was replaced by the new regulations.

Content of Council Regulation (EU) 2018/581

The Council Regulation provides a legislative basis for the temporary suspension of the EU’s autonomous customs duties on certain goods of a kind to be incorporated in or used for aircraft. The Regulation also sets out the main principles for the application of the suspension.

The Council Regulation does not only apply to goods supplied for civilian aircraft, but also covers goods that may also be destined for military aircraft. However, the nature of the goods must be such that they can also be used in a civil aircraft. Moreover, the preferential treatment does not require the goods to be affixed to an aircraft in commercial use.

Under Council Regulation (EU) 2018/581, customs duties are suspended for the following goods:

  • parts, components and other goods of a kind to be incorporated in or used for aircraft and parts thereof in the course of their manufacture, repair, maintenance, rebuilding, modification or conversion, and
  • goods that have lost their airworthiness status when imported for repair or maintenance

The condition for granting a suspension of customs duties is the availability of the following certificates:

  • an authorised release certificate (EASA Form 1) issued by a party authorised by aviation authorities within the Union

OR

  • a certificate equivalent to the EASA Form 1 issued by certain third countries

OR

  • a previous authorised release certificate in the case of repair or maintenance of goods that have lost their airworthiness status

Whenever an “authorised release certificate” is mentioned in this instruction, it refers both to an authorised release certificate corresponding to the EASA Form 1 and to a certificate accepted as equivalent to it in a third country.

Note that goods released for free circulation under duty suspension based on an authorised release certificate should not be confused with goods placed under the end-use procedure. Goods released based on an authorised release certificate do not remain under customs supervision and their intended use is not subject to a time limit, such as goods released for free circulation under the end-use procedure.

The authorised release certificate must be entered in the customs declaration

A customs declaration for release for free circulation must contain a reference to the identification number of the authorised release certificate. The certificate is to be mentioned in the import declaration using document code C119.

If the goods have lost their airworthiness status, and have been imported for repair or maintenance, the declaration must contain a reference to the identification number of a previous authorised release certificate. The certificates must be submitted to the customs authority on request either in electronic form or in some other manner (by post or by delivering it to a customs office).

Instead of the identification number of the authorised release certificate, Customs can accept a reference to any reference number that the trader can use to connect the products and the certificate in its records. In other words, some other reference number than the number of the authorised release certificate may be provided together with document code C119.

Provide the following details in the import declaration:

Requested customs procedure

  • ”40 – Release for free circulation”
  • “61 – Re-importation with release for free circulation”

Preferential treatment code 

  • ”119 – Erga Omnes autonomous tariff suspensions subject to an “airworthiness certificate" 

Enter the following additional procedure code depending on whether or not the goods will be incorporated in or used for an aircraft in professional international air traffic: 

  • additional procedure code “619 – Spare parts and equipment for aircraft on presentation of an authorised release certificate.” Customs duty exemption under Council Regulation (EU) 2018/581, Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) 2018/1517, VAT exemption under section 94(1)(9) VAT Act), if the goods are placed in an aircraft used for professional international air traffic (e.g. passenger aircraft, cargo aeroplane) 
  • additional procedure code “999 – No additional procedure”, if the part will be placed in some other aeroplane

Supporting document

  • with document code “C119 – Authorised Release Certificate – EASA Form 1 (Appendix I to Annex I to Regulation (EU) No 748/2012), or equivalent certificate” and as its description, the authorised release certificate or some other reference number with which the products and the authorised release certificate can be linked to each other in the records. 
    • If you have knowledge of an authorised release certificate or some other reference number at the time of import, submit a standard declaration in one stage in the Customs Clearance Service or with a message.
    • If you don’t have knowledge of an authorised release certificate at the time of import, you can submit the declaration in two stages in the Customs Clearance Service or with a message. You need to apply for an authorisation for two-stage declaration, where the supplementary declaration needs to be submitted to Customs within ten days of the release of the goods or of the end of the period. 

Facilitated procedure for obtaining preferential treatment for civil aircraft on import

A facilitated procedure can also be used when importing a registered civil aircraft, if the civil aircraft is classified under certain commodity codes and the commodity code has the footnotes TN101 and EU004. These footnotes are mentioned under the commodity codes 8802 11 00, 8802 12 00, 8802 20 00 and 8802 30 00 as well as in aircraft under commodity code 8802 40 00. 

In additions to the commodity codes, using the facilitated procedure requires that the aircraft to be imported is a civil aircraft, which is registered in a civil aircraft register in an EU country or a country outside of the EU. As evidence of the registration, a Certificate of Registration must be presented in conjunction with the customs declaration. You can find the footnotes for the commodity codes and the conditions in the Fintaric service. Here you can check the user instructions for the Fintaric service. 

When all the conditions for the import are fulfilled, you can place the civil aircraft under the release for free circulation procedure, use the commodity codes in question when declaring, and with the Certificate of Registration, obtain preferential treatment in accordance with the end-use.

Provide the following details in the customs declaration:
Requested customs procedure

  • procedure code “40 – Release for free circulation”

Preferential treatment code 

  • preference code “100 – Erga Omnes third country duty rates”

Provide the following additional procedure code according to whether or not the aircraft is a civil aircraft that will be used in professional international air traffic: 

  • Additional procedure code “620 – Other aircraft, spare parts and equipment referred to in section 70 of the VAT Act, VAT exemption under section 94(1)(9) VAT Act, if the civil aircraft will be used by an entrepreneur operating for reward mainly on international routes.
  • Additional procedure code “999 – No additional procedure”, if the civil aircraft will be used in other air traffic.

Supporting document

  • valid registration certificate:
    • provide the registration certificate using the additional document code “C072 – Aircraft’s registration certificate in accordance with the Convention on International Civil Aviation dated 7 December 1944”
    • Attach the registration certificate to the customs declaration.

Commodity codes required for using the facilitated procedure are also mentioned in Part B of the Special Provision of the Combined Nomenclature; therefore, using the end-use procedure is also possible. You can declare the civil aircraft to the end-use procedure, but you must apply for an authorisation to use the end-use procedure. Read more about the end-use procedure.

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