This business aviation blog post continues from our article last week, entitled “Turkey Overflight Permit Changes – Part 1: Good News for Bizav.”

Even if you do not currently have an overflight of Turkey planned, it’s a good idea to apply for this permit exemption well in advance. Having it will give your business aircraft ongoing approval for unlimited overflights through Turkish airspace with only the requirement of filing a flight plan. This will ease the process of organizing future short-notice trips through the region.

The following is an overview of what you need to know:

1. Processing overflight permits

Turkish Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) processes all overflight and landing permits, and their operating hours are Monday-Friday, 0830-1730 local. Permits may, however, be obtained 24/7 from the Administration of Esenboga Airport of the Directorate General of State Airports Administration when CAA offices are closed. Permits, therefore, are obtainable on weekends and holidays. When you apply for short-notice permits, however, it’s suggested to ensure that your 3rd-party provider has good business relations with these authorizing entities.

2. Overflight permit validity

If your aircraft is not registered to one of the countries having bilateral agreements with Turkey, your overflight permit will be valid with a deviation of -24/+72 hours, from date and time it was approved for, and you must obtain one for every flight overflying Turkey’s airspace.

3. Overflight restrictions

Be aware that Turkey has certain overflight restrictions. For example, flights to and from Cyprus are often not permitted. It’s always best to communicate with your 3rd-party provider, well before day of operation, to confirm any and all applicable flight restrictions.

4. Operating permit-free over Turkey

Once you’ve been approved for permit-free overflight of Turkey, you’ll still need to ensure that your flight plan is filed correctly – correctly notating private non-revenue or charter operation – and is submitted at least three hours prior to departure. If you’re transporting hazardous goods, cargo, or other such items, you’ll need to confirm with CAA in advance that this is acceptable.

5. Qualification to operate permit-free

To maintain your authorization to overfly Turkey without a permit, it’s important that all required documentation remain in active status and not expire. We recommend that operators maintain notes on document expirations, in order to ensure updated documentation is forwarded by your 3rd-party provider to CAA as needed.

6. Problem resolution

In the event you have approval to proceed without an overflight permit (i.e., correct and valid documents on file and part of the 139 countries that have a bilateral agreement with Turkey) and your flight plan is denied, the remedy is usually straightforward. In this case your agent that is based in Turkey will simply update CAA with current documentation.

Conclusion

This important regulatory change is good news for the global business aviation community, and it does much to ease and facilitate transits through this part of the world. There’s talk about making future regulatory changes to ease permit requirements for tech stops, but no formal information is known at this time. Always ensure that your new documentation is submitted to authorities to avoid issues on the day of departure for operators that are eligible to overfly the country without a permit. Also, for operators that do require a permit, it’s best to allow appropriate lead times for obtaining the permit for each flight over the country.

Questions?

If you have any questions about this article or would like assistance with Turkey overflight permits, contact me at johnmcclelland@univ-wea.com.