Following a lobbying effort spearheaded by the National Air Transportation Association (NATA), the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) has elected to retain the current Agricultural Quarantine and Inspection user fee exemption for certain aircraft with 64 or fewer seats. The measure, which had been set to expire next month, will now be maintained indefinitely.
Along with input from aircraft operators, the trade organization argued that the smaller aircraft in Part 135 service pose a lower agricultural contamination risk due to their limited payload capacities, compared to large freighters and airliners, which often carry volumes of bagged and palletized cargo. NATA noted that medevac flights, which constitute a portion of Part 135 operations, have even lower risk because of their medical safety standards and protocols.
Charging Part 135 operators the same fee as cargo or commercial airline operators would have “subsidized large corporations at the expense of small businesses, contradicting APHIS’s mandate to ensure fees align with the cost of services provided.”
“Removing the small aircraft exemption would have unfairly burdened the Part 135 sector, mostly comprising small businesses,” said Jenny Lee Urban, NATA’s v-p of regulatory affairs. “We are pleased APHIS recognized the minimal inspection demands and low agricultural risk of these operations by continuing the exemption.”