Short & Sweet no. 16
Which customs procedures can be used for parking an aircraft within the EU?

• Temporary Admission can normally be used for parking when visiting the EU

• But can the Customs Warehouse Procedure also be used for parking or long-term storage?

• Where are the grey zone areas and pitfalls?

We are often asked how to choose the correct customs procedure when an aircraft is going to be parked for a longer period within the EU. In this article, we dive a bit deeper into the topic and look at how the different customs procedures can be used in this respect.

The customs aspect of flying within the EU
Any aircraft flying into the EU will operate under customs control using either the Temporary Admission procedure (TA) or full importation (FI). There are no other options. The TA procedure can only be used by EU outsiders where the aircraft is owned (including any UBOs), operated, registered, and based outside the EU, leaving EU insiders only one option: full importation. EU outsiders can, of course, choose to use full importation instead of TA if they find it beneficial. However, both options can be used commercially or privately if applied correctly.

Temporary Admission
The aircraft is allowed to stay or park for up to six months at a time when operated by EU outsiders visiting the EU. A new six-month period can be initiated upon a new entry into the EU. EU outsiders should never fear parking their aircraft during their visit to the EU, but continuously flying in and out of the EU with longer periods of stay at the same destination could eventually get the operator or aircraft considered as having established a local or fixed EU base – changing the status of the visiting EU outsider to become an EU insider. Please have a look at these fixed base indicators if relevant.

TA can, in general, only be used when the purpose of flights is transportation of persons. This is why TA cannot be used where the purpose of a flight is parking, storage, maintenance (MRO), etc. We have seen cases where normally Swiss-based aircraft for a longer period were flown empty to a rented (cheaper and available) hangar in France for parking between flights to and from Switzerland. These cases ended badly when French customs realized that the real purpose of the stay was parking or hangarage and not transportation of persons. These scenarios clearly required a full importation even though the same operator and aircraft were able to use TA correctly if they had flown to France with passengers onboard.

Full importation
The aircraft will be in free circulation within the EU and can be parked without any customs restrictions. EU outsiders should, however, always be aware of other consequences of using full importation before choosing this option over TA.

Customs Warehouse
The Customs Warehouse Procedure can only be used when the goods involved (the aircraft) are used as part of a refinement process. The procedure does not support any scenarios where the purpose is parking or long-term storage. Therefore, an aircraft should never be able to qualify for this procedure if the purpose is parking or long-term storage, as the state of the aircraft has not changed when discharged from the procedure. A refinement process has simply not happened while parked. The Customs Warehouse Procedure can also not be used to facilitate any kind of maintenance (MRO) activities as this kind of activity is not considered a refinement process.

WARNING

The risk of the Customs Warehouse Procedure is that any wrong use of the procedure can easily be seen as a circumvention of the regulation where a full importation should have been used instead. If you feel tempted to use the Customs Warehouse Procedure for parking or long-term storage and think that your local customs have a different practical interpretation of the procedure than described above, please secure the case by asking the local customs for a binding assessment ruling, approving the correct purpose before asking your local customs agent to imitate the procedure.