Last updated 7 November 2026 · every figure recomputed from the sources listed at the foot of this page
Civil Aircraft: The 15,000 kg and 30,000 kg Lines Behind 24 Headings
Aircraft duty in Chapter 99 turns on a number that appears nowhere in the tariff schedule's product descriptions: unladen weight. Two thresholds divide the family. Above 30,000 kg, heading 9903.89.05 adds 15 percent. Above 15,000 kg but not above 30,000, heading 9903.89.07 restates the base duty. This page prints all 24 headings in the family, the 28 jurisdictions the note names, and the three civil-aircraft headings that give the base rate back.
The two thresholds, as printed
The thresholds are in the heading rows rather than in the notes, and they read exactly like this:
“of an unladen weight exceeding 30,000 kg” — heading 9903.89.05, which adds 15 percent.
“Airplanes and other aircraft, of an unladen weight exceeding 15,000 kg” — heading 9903.89.07, which restates the base duty.
The two headings sit next to each other in the schedule and produce opposite outcomes. An aircraft at 35,000 kg unladen is inside the first and pays 15 percent on top of a base rate. An aircraft at 20,000 kg is inside the second and pays the base rate alone. The crossover is at 30,000 kg, and it is a step, not a ramp — there is no phase-in between the two headings.
Where the base rates sit
Chapter 88 prices aircraft at Free, and it does so consistently: across the 7 rated lines under heading 8802, 7 print Free. The parts headings are the same story — 5 of 5 rated lines under 8803 and 8807 print Free.
This table is wider than the screen: scroll it sideways to reach every column.
| HTS line | General rate | Description (abridged) |
|---|---|---|
| 8802.11.01 | Free | Of an unladen weight not exceeding 2,000 kg |
| 8802.12.01 | Free | Of an unladen weight exceeding 2,000 kg |
| 8802.20.01 | Free | Airplanes and other aircraft, of an unladen weight not exceeding 2,000 kg |
| 8802.30.01 | Free | Airplanes and other aircraft, of an unladen weight exceeding 2,000 kg but not ... |
| 8802.40.01 | Free | Airplanes and other aircraft, of an unladen weight exceeding 15,000 kg |
| 8802.60.30.00 | Free | Communications satellites |
| 8802.60.90 | Free | Other |
Source: USITC · checked .
So the 15 percent on a large aircraft is the entire duty, not an increment on a meaningful base. That is why the weight threshold matters so much in this family: it is the difference between zero and 15 percent, with nothing in between.
This table is wider than the screen: scroll it sideways to reach every column.
| HTS line | General rate | Description (abridged) |
|---|---|---|
| 8807.10.00 | Free | Propellers and rotors and parts thereof |
| 8807.20.00 | Free | Undercarriages and parts thereof |
| 8807.30.00 | Free | Other parts of airplanes, helicopters or unmanned aircraft |
| 8807.90.30.00 | Free | Parts of communications satellites |
| 8807.90.90 | Free | Other |
Source: USITC · checked .
The civil-aircraft headings that give it back
Three headings in the 9903.96 family exist to restore the base rate for civil aircraft from specific origins. All three print the base duty rather than an additional rate.
This table is wider than the screen: scroll it sideways to reach every column.
| Heading | General rate | Scope as printed (abridged) |
|---|---|---|
| 9903.96.01 | The duty provided in the applicable subheading | Effective with respect to entries on or after June 30, 2025, articles of civil aircraft (all aircraft other than ... |
| 9903.96.02 | The duty provided in the applicable subheading | Articles of civil aircraft (all aircraft other than military aircraft); their engines, parts, and components; their ... |
| 9903.96.03 | No change | Civil aircraft (all aircraft other than military aircraft and unmanned aircraft) components that are products of ... |
Source: USITC (United States International Trade Commission) · checked .
The pattern is the same one that runs through the whole subchapter: where a trade arrangement covers a product, Chapter 99 does not simply let the general overlay apply — it creates a heading that names the arrangement and prints the rate that follows from it. Reading the family without those headings produces a 15 percent error on qualifying goods.
The 28 jurisdictions the note names
Note 21(a) scopes the aircraft-part headings by naming jurisdictions rather than by describing them, and the list is long enough to be worth printing in full: Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Republic of Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, the United Kingdom. The same note carries a compiler's note about suspension: “Duties suspended under terms set forth in notice appearing at 86 F.R. 36313, July 9, 2021”. That sentence is part of the official text, which means the rates in this family have a history of being switched on and off by instrument rather than by the schedule.
Every heading in the family
The table prints all 24: 2 add 15 percent (9903.89.05, 9903.89.61), 17 add 25 percent, 4 restate the base duty (9903.89.07, 9903.89.50, 9903.89.59, 9903.89.63), and 1 adds zero (9903.89.01). The 25 percent group is the largest, and it covers enumerated aircraft parts rather than aircraft themselves.
That last heading is worth a sentence because it is a trap for anyone reading the family by its prefix. 9903.89.01 shares the 9903.89 numbering but it is not an aircraft heading at all — it is the Nicaragua phase-in heading, which sits in this family only because Chapter 99 numbers its headings contiguously rather than by subject. A reader who assumes every 9903.89 heading concerns aircraft will mis-scope it, and a table that quietly dropped it would claim the family has 23 headings when the schedule prints 24.
This table is wider than the screen: scroll it sideways to reach every column.
| Heading | General rate | Scope as printed (abridged) |
|---|---|---|
| 9903.89.01 | The duty provided in the applicable subheading + 0% | Articles the product of Nicaragua, as provided for in U.S. note 29 to this subchapter |
| 9903.89.05 | The duty provided in the applicable subheading + 15% | New airplanes and other new aircraft, as defined in U.S. note 21(b) to this subchapter (other than military ... |
| 9903.89.07 | The duty provided in the applicable subheading | Airplanes and other aircraft, of an unladen weight exceeding 15,000 kg (provided for in subheading 8802.40.00) ... |
| 9903.89.10 | The duty provided in the applicable subheading + 25% | Provided for in the subheadings enumerated in U.S. note 21(c) to this subchapter |
| 9903.89.13 | The duty provided in the applicable subheading + 25% | Provided for in subheadings enumerated in U.S. note 21(d) to this subchapter |
| 9903.89.16 | The duty provided in the applicable subheading + 25% | Provided for in subheadings enumerated in U.S. note 21(e) to this subchapter |
| 9903.89.19 | The duty provided in the applicable subheading + 25% | Provided for in subheadings enumerated in U.S. note 21(f) to this subchapter |
| 9903.89.22 | The duty provided in the applicable subheading + 25% | Provided for in subheadings enumerated in U.S. note 21(g) to this subchapter |
| 9903.89.25 | The duty provided in the applicable subheading + 25% | Provided for in subheadings enumerated in U.S. note 21(h) to this subchapter |
| 9903.89.28 | The duty provided in the applicable subheading + 25% | Provided for in subheadings enumerated in U.S. note 21(i) to this subchapter |
| 9903.89.31 | The duty provided in the applicable subheading + 25% | Provided for in subheadings enumerated in U.S. note 21(j) to this subchapter |
| 9903.89.34 | The duty provided in the applicable subheading + 25% | Provided for in subheadings enumerated in U.S. note 21(k) to this subchapter |
| 9903.89.37 | The duty provided in the applicable subheading + 25% | Provided for in subheadings enumerated in U.S. note 21(l) to this subchapter |
| 9903.89.40 | The duty provided in the applicable subheading + 25% | Provided for in subheadings enumerated in U.S. note 21(m) to this subchapter |
| 9903.89.43 | The duty provided in the applicable subheading + 25% | Provided for in subheadings enumerated in U.S. note 21(n) to this subchapter |
| 9903.89.46 | The duty provided in the applicable subheading + 25% | Provided for in subheadings enumerated in U.S. note 21(o) to this subchapter |
| 9903.89.49 | The duty provided in the applicable subheading + 25% | Provided for in subheadings enumerated in U.S. note 21(p) to this subchapter |
| 9903.89.50 | The duty provided in the applicable subheading | Irish and Scotch Whiskies (provided for in subheading 2208.30.30), the foregoing not described in subheading ... |
| 9903.89.52 | The duty provided in the applicable subheading + 25% | Provided for in subheadings enumerated in U.S. note 21(q) to this subchapter |
| 9903.89.55 | The duty provided inthe applicable subheading+ 25% | Provided for in subheadings enumerated in U.S. note 21(r) to this subchapter |
| 9903.89.57 | The duty provided in the applicable subheading + 25% | Provided for in subheadings enumerated in U.S. note 21(s) to this subchapter |
| 9903.89.59 | The duty provided in the applicable subheading | Spirits obtained by distilling grape wine or grape marc (grape brandy), other than Pisco and Singani, in ... |
| 9903.89.61 | The duty provided in the applicable subheading + 15% | Fuselages and fuselage sections, wings and wing assemblies (other than wings having exterior surfaces of carbon ... |
| 9903.89.63 | The duty provided in the applicable subheading | Other parts of airplanes or helicopters (provided for [described]in statistical reporting number 8803.30.0030) ... |
Source: USITC (United States International Trade Commission) · checked .
Why this is a threshold page and not a product page
Most tariff pages are organised by what the goods are. This family is organised by a measurement. Two aircraft with the same model number can be on opposite sides of the 30,000 kg line if they are configured differently, and the duty follows the weight rather than the model. The same is true of the parts headings, which turn on whether the part is suitable for use with an aircraft above the weight threshold rather than on what the part is.
That shape is the reason this page is built as a threshold table. A reader who wants “the aircraft tariff” needs a number to compare against their own article, and the schedule supplies two.
What this page does not tell you
The 28 jurisdictions named in the note are the scope of the part headings; they are not a list of origins that pay nothing. The suspension quoted above is reproduced because it is printed in the schedule, not because this page can determine whether it currently applies to a particular entry — that turns on the instrument it cites. And the special column, which carries the trade-agreement rates, is not reproduced here.
What the page establishes is the two numbers and the shape: 15,000 kg and 30,000 kg, a Free base rate, and a family of 24 headings of which 2 add 15 percent, 17 add 25 percent and 4 restate the base duty.
Frequently asked questions
- What is the weight threshold for the aircraft tariff?
- Two thresholds. Above 30,000 kg unladen, heading 9903.89.05 adds 15 percent. Above 15,000 kg but not above 30,000 kg, heading 9903.89.07 restates the base duty. The crossover is a step, not a phase-in.
- How many headings are in the 9903.89 family?
- 24. 2 add 15 percent (9903.89.05, 9903.89.61), 17 add 25 percent, and 4 restate the base duty (9903.89.07, 9903.89.50, 9903.89.59, 9903.89.63).
- What is the base tariff rate on aircraft?
- Free. Across the 7 rated lines under heading 8802, 7 print Free in the general column, and the parts headings under 8803 and 8807 are the same — 5 of 5 rated lines print Free. The 15 percent on a large aircraft is therefore the entire duty.
- Which countries are named in the aircraft note?
- 28 jurisdictions are named in note 21(a): Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Republic of Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, the United Kingdom. The note scopes the aircraft-part headings by naming them rather than by describing the parts.
- Do the 9903.96 civil-aircraft headings add a duty?
- No. All 3 headings in the 9903.96 family print the base duty rather than an additional rate. They exist to restore the base rate for civil aircraft from specific origins.
- Is the aircraft duty currently suspended?
- The schedule carries a compiler's note in this family stating that duties are suspended under terms set forth in a notice at 86 F.R. 36313 of July 9, 2021. Whether that suspension reaches a particular entry depends on the instrument it cites, which this page does not interpret.
Sources
- USITC — Chapter 88 REST export (8802.40 aircraft by unladen weight) (read 2026-11-07T00:34:56Z, sha256 178129cf5ecf3dab…)
- USITC (United States International Trade Commission) — Chapter 99 REST export re-read by this task; 3,350 rows. Byte-identical to the copy batch 1 read on 2026-11-06 (read 2026-11-07T00:34:48Z, sha256 e55de042e0cb6b67…)
Every figure above is recomputed from the datasets listed here at render time; the dataset vintage and each source's check timestamp are printed with it. This page extends the prototype that already earns search traffic on the same mechanism. Rates are informational, not a binding customs determination: confirm the classification and the entry with CBP before shipping.