Two conditions need to be fulfilled in order for an aircraft operator to benefit from the de minimis exemption under subparagraph (j) of Annex I to the EU ETS Directive:

• the operator is a commercial air transport operator; AND

• the aircraft operator operated less than 243 flights per consecutive period of four months (Jan-Apr, May-Aug, Sep-Dec) or emitted less than 10,000 tonnes of CO2 annually.

If these conditions are met, the most probable reason for inclusion in the list is that for its present functions EUROCONTROL does not retain comprehensive records about AOCs for all operators flying in the EU region. As a result, EUROCONTROL may not be aware of the commercial status of particular operators (as defined in Article 3 of the EU ETS Directive). When this AOC information is missing, the operator is deemed not to be a commercial air transport operator.

An operator may also be included in the list because the last condition above is not satisfied. This means that according to the air traffic information held by EUROCONTROL and the CO2 emissions estimations produced by EUROCONTROL, in any of the years since 2006 both of the following conditions were fulfilled:

• in one of these years, the annual CO2 emissions were estimated to be above 10,000 tonnes and

• in at least one of the four month periods Jan-Apr, May-Aug, or Sep-Dec of the same year you operated at least 243 flights