When I plan flights in Europe it's obvious the correct policy to use is EU-OPS. But which should I use for North America, Australasia and other parts of the world? When does ICAO get used?

Maybe this document answers your question:

https://skybrary.aero/articles/fuel-regulations

 

If you bring up the fuel policy editor Ray the various options are labelled for US, Australia and Russia in addition to EU and ICAO.

 

In addition to the US Domestic and International Flag options Gary McGinnis produced a guide for Class II planning and associated fuel policies available here

 

As noted in Otto's link the carrier will use the policies of the governing authority where the aircraft is registered.

 

In other areas where you do not have defined policies ICAO could be used.

 

Otto and Stephen, thank you both for those links. I’ll read through them and hopefully all will become clear. 😀

The fuel policy does not depend on the country you happen to be flying in... An operator will always have to comply with the fuel policy of the country it is registered in. If Delta was to start domestic flights in Spain, it would still need to comply with FAA fuel requirements, just like Qantas wouldn't stop using their Aussie fuel policy when operating from Singapore to Heathrow.

@InterCityExpress, good point. Most of my flights are with British registered aircraft.

 

But not to get political - now that the UK is no longer a member of the EU is the EU-OPS policy still relevant? Is PFPX up to date in that respect?

That is indeed a fair question! 

 

I'll have to check with my sources. My assumption is, though, that nothing substantial has changed. I would guess that the UK CAA has tons of other things on their mind right now 😄

It’s probably number 1,376 on the list of things that need to change post-Brexit. 😁

 

I’ll continue to use EU-OPS and hope no one from an EU country complains. 😁

To further muddy the waters, operators sometimes have to adapt their policy to the country they are flying to in order to appease their regulator as well as their own.

1 hour ago, VHOJT said:

To further muddy the waters, operators sometimes have to adapt their policy to the country they are flying to in order to appease their regulator as well as their own.

 

I think I'll stick to using the country of aircraft registration as my guide, thanks.