Overflight with war materiel

Licensing procedure for the transit of war materiel through Swiss airspace by civil aircraft.

© Stefan Schwinghammer

Transit by civil aircraft

A new licensing procedure for the transit of war materiel through Swiss airspace by civil aircraft entered into force on 1 October 2015.

The Federal Office of Civil Aviation (FOCA) is the competent authority for approving overflights. Applications for overflight clearance must be submitted to FOCA, which, as the national aviation authority, serves as the point of contact for airlines.

• Flight Operations

Where war materiel is carried on board, a transit licence for war materiel must additionally be applied for from SECO via Electronic licences for export control (ELIC) and submitted to FOCA.

Transit by state aircraft (diplomatic clearance)

State flights are flights conducted for missions in the service of states, or military, customs or police authorities. These include in particular flights carried out on behalf of a state, transport of heads of state and senior government officials on official missions, police and customs operations, and all military flights.

FOCA is the competent authority for diplomatic clearance applications. The carriage of war materiel must be notified to FOCA. In such cases (diplomatic clearance), no additional transit licence from SECO is required.

• Diplomatic Clearances

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