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.
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