Hi folks
I’m in and around the Belgium/Luxembourg area next week, and when you consider Belgium, France and Germany are three times more expensive for Jet-A1 than the UK or Lux (unless you hold an AOC), then it seems ELLX is a good fuel stop option. Has anyone done it recently for a simple fuel and go?
I have an Air BP card and they are listed as Air BP for their Jet-A1, so I’m guessing that will be the easy bit. Is handling still mandatory for a simple fuel and go?
Aircraft would be a twin, DA42 under 2 tonnes.
Cheers
I called them recently with exactly this plan, and they confirmed that handling was mandatory. With the approach and landing fees I decided this couldn’t be done economically.
Also, next door, in Belgium, Jet-A is also quite cheap. Namur for example is 0.90€ according a recent SD entry.
slowbird wrote:
Is handling still mandatory for a simple fuel and go?
Yes. There is absolutely no way around that for non-based aircraft for Jet A1. There is a self-serve pump for avgas 100LL, but paying the approach fee other than through handling takes prior organisation and local contacts.
Rwy20 wrote:
With the approach and landing fees I decided this couldn’t be done economically.
The approach fee (below 2t) is a cheap 6.10 EUR, and there is no landing fee at all. But the mandatory handling (which a few years ago was around 100 EUR give or take a factor 2) changes the economics completely.
Mandatory payment for a service you didn’t ask for. Sounds like the maffia to me.
lionel wrote:
The approach fee (below 2t) is a cheap 6.10 EUR
Well they quoted me around 30 € for the approach.
Rwy20 wrote:
Well they quoted me around 30 € for the approach.
Ah, I think I understand. Depending on how you pay for fuel, you pay either:
I think the Business Aviation Center put you in the second bucket; maybe they always do. I think they called “F” the “approach fee” because it is the fee for the fuel truck to “approach your plane”, and “about 30 EUR” sounds right for my memory of the value of F. (I’m in the first bucket.) I’m rather sure it is not (for a sub-2t plane) the approach fee of the plane to the runway. That’s 6.10 EUR.
That sounds curious. I did say the intended landing was just to refuel, but we didn’t even get to talk about the price of fuel yet. For me, the P x volume model is always cheaper anyways. Maybe she assumed some higher MTOM but I don’t think so either.
Or maybe it was the new PPR fee that they introduced a year or two ago (when PPR became mandatory)? Or they have reintroduced the “special handling fee for fuel stop” that they stopped doing? Back in 2016 or so, you could have a reduced handling fee for a fuel stop, but then they would take a percentage on the fuel bill.
Thanks for the info folks. I might give them a call just to ask too. Maybe if loads of people call and then decline at the price they might realise the fee is too high. As if.
