Overflight Permits

Overflight permits are approvals from Civil Aviation Authorities (CAAs) to overfly the country’s airspace. It varies depending on each country. It’s necessary to check overflight permit requirements before planning your route.

1. Requirements

Most countries force overflight permit. Recently more countries have been including such overflight permit requirements. Suriname and Brazil for instance did not have overflight permit requirements previously, but now they do. While most countries in Africa, South America, Asia require overflight licenses, for private and charter flights, Europe does require it. But if you are operating an experimental airplane, most European countries require these permits to overfly their territory.

2. Timing

Overflight permits can typically be handled in 3-5 business days for South America, Asia and Africa. A few countries, like Mongolia, Togo, Myanmar, require longer time for approval. Mongolia, for instance, requires 14 business days to issue overflight permit, Togo needs 10 days, Myanmar commands 9 days, and Indonesia needs about 7 business days.

3. Permit requirements for picked routings

When you decide the countries you’ll be overflying, you’ll have to research specific requirements for every territory, important documentation, and Flight Information Regions (FIRs).

4. No-go routings

There`re some countries that forbid overflying their territory, or operate between two specific territories. Here`re some references for you to know:

• You can`t fly directly between Taiwan and China, or between Argentina and the Falkland Islands.
• Israel forbids to fly through their territory at all.
• In case you’re flying on an Israeli-constructed airplane, you won’t be allowed to overfly most territories in the Middle East.
• Venezuela CAA won’t let you overfly their territory in you have outstanding overflight charges and fees, and they may not tell you this until you’re entering their FIR.