US CBP – Changes to Border Overflight Exemption
As many pilots are aware, 19 CFR 122.23 and 122.24 establish the regulatory requirement that all general aviation aircraft must make their first landing at one of 32 “Designated” airports when the flight departed a country “south” of the US. Practically speaking, CBP’s definition of “south” means any country in the western hemisphere other than Bermuda and Canada. However, 19 CFR 122.25 establishes an exemption to this regulation if an operator obtains a valid “Border Overflight Exemption” (BOE) from CBP.
As international flying veterans are aware, the process for requesting a BOE has been evolving over the past several years and most recently, there has been an increased scrutiny on commercial aircraft operators to ensure that these operations are conducting flights in strict compliance with CBP regulations. This scrutiny has uncovered that some operators have been non-compliant for different reasons and CBP has been working with those operators to get them into compliance.
As part of this evolution, CBP has changed the text of the BOE to specify the type of operations that the holder of the BOE may perform. Going forward, Commercial (charter) operators who have completed the self-declarations and CBP vetting will be issued BOEs with the text “This BOE can be used for both private and/or commercial operations”. Operators who have declared themselves to CBP to be private operators will receive BOEs with the text “this BOE can only be utilized for private aircraft operations. The use of this BOE for commercial aircraft operations is not authorized and can result in BOE revocation, penalty case initiation, and/or other CBP enforcement actions.”
If you currently possess a BOE that was issued before this change to the BOE text and you are planning on conducting commercial operations, and you are not ABSOLUTELY CERTAIN, that you are authorized by CBP to conduct commercial operations with that BOE, then you should contact CBP headquarters to verify what type of operations you are authorized to conduct with your BOE. Take a few moments to verify and avoid the potential downside of negative consequences for conducting unauthorized operations.