FRAPORT Greece took the initiative to invite for a meeting on September 26th at their premises two General Aviation pilot associations and five aeroclubs based in their airports.
An excerpt from their invitation:
As one of our important stakeholders, we have been looking into ways to ensure that General Aviation continues to be present despite the exponential increase in commercial traffic at the Greek regional airports and the lack of airport capacity.As we had promised in the past and as the Summer season is coming to a close, we are beginning to have the ability to dedicate resources to this task. To this end, we would like to invite you to our offices for a meeting during which we will present our plans for a more flexible approach as well as the framework provided in the Concession Agreement with the Greek State within which we are obliged to operate.
My general impression of FRAPORT is they are clueless when it comes to runnng an airport ( the ridiculous yellow lines on the ramp at Kefallonia being an example of this ) and run the whole thing from an office remote from the realities of life on the ramp at their airports.
As another summers flying to the Greek islands comes to a close I remain unfavourabley impressed with the commercial and operational ability’s of this company.
When all that is required to accommodate a few GA SEP/MEP aircraft is a strip of grass parking set back from a taxiway with a few tie downs set into the ground and the ability to get the crew & pax to and from the aircraft you would think that with the Greek weather this would turn a more than a few € in Proffit from GA movements but they don’t seem to think that way.
My conclusion is that if Greek AOPA can’t get the Fraport management out of their offices and out to see how they can encourage a new revenue stream the only option that the GA community has is to take leagal action. It would seem that if Fraport are starting to talk to the GA community the prospect of leagal action might just be worrying them enough to start taking the problem serously.
the exponential increase in commercial traffic at the Greek regional airports and the lack of airport capacity.
I guess regional aiports have achieved the increase in traffic but I’m sure it’s far from being exponential. And I’m quite sure they don’t lack capacity to accommodate GA. So it’s bunch of empty words used to justify lack of will to fairly treat GA. Legal action against them is the only way to go, otherwise they will try to play with minor concessions pretending they are willing to solve the problem.
The recent increase in Greek airport traffic is due to the troubles in Turkey and Egypt, but these gains may be short lived. Eventually, as the terrorist activities pass out of the public eye, the traffic will return, and Greece will have given up its revenue generating airports for nothing.
Why Fraport was given control is a mystery although it is almost certain that Greece, heavily in debt, was given no option by its principal debtor, where Fraport is based. Whether Greece had the organisational capability to improve the said airports is another question; they had many years in which to do it and they didn’t do it, resulting in places like Santorini getting the #1 prize for Europe’s worst airport. This I really don’t understand; running an airport is surely about as hard as the world oldest profession 
Clueless has probably not much to do with it. They are simple bean counters who make the simple calculation saying that one 737 they handle brings in x times what a PA28 will bring in so they are not interested unless they can make an “adequate” amount of money. They don’t see it our way that the infrastructure is there anyhow, but to them they own the airport and say who operates there. For all practical matter, they regard these airports as their private property with which they can do what they please.
Apart from some notorious GA haters in those airport companies, the majority simply sais that GA at normal GA prices is not worth even filling in a landing form, so buzz off and go to the little gras strips where they belong. This is how the majority of big airports work these days, but the trouble starts where there are no small grass / GA strips to take the slack. There imho legislation is needed to stop the abuse. And I agree this will take legal action. Obviously, if that legal action is dismissed, the result will be that a lot more big airports will feel legitimized to make their dreams come true and ban GA. But I suppose this is a risk worth taking.
“They are simple bean counters who make the simple calculation saying that one 737 they handle brings in x times what a PA28 will bring in so they are not interested unless they can make an “adequate” amount of money.”
That is a quite disputable statement. If you talk to the guys handling low budget carrier, there is a saying that an old tin bucket C172 or PA28 brings more direct money compared to a 737 full of tourist cattle …
AFAIK Ryanair are paid for landing in some countries but not all, obviously not at Gatwick, and I don’t know about Greece.
Peter wrote:
AFAIK Ryanair are paid for landing in some countries but not all, obviously not at Gatwick, and I don’t know about Greece.
…which of course is illegal in the EU. They did such a stunt at Stockholm/Skavsta airport some years back, The city that owned the airport (Nyköping — not Stockholm, which is some 100 km away) bought “advertisements” from Ryanair — a poorly hidden subsidy.
Niko (from Niko’s Wings) on a day trip from Tatoi to Corfu and back. Not much new here regarding this topic, but obviously another testament to the bullshlt GA procedures in Greece and Corfu in particular.
Obviously one could use this again to make the point that he is unprepared about the rules and procedures in Europe and Greece, but I think you can’t expect a US pilot to know all these things on his first PIC flight in what is, from a procedural point of view, of the most challenging flying territory in Europe.
A European pilot will likewise make some minor mistakes on his first flight in the US. If anything, I think the difference is in the attitude. A Euroean pilot, when flying first the first time in the US, fully expects things to be different and prepares rather thoroughly on that. US pilots on the other hand seem to fully expect procedures to be more or less like a home, because they don’t have the broad horizon that there might be a world outside of the US.
Peter wrote:
AFAIK Ryanair are paid for landing in some countries but not all, obviously not at Gatwick, and I don’t know about Greece.
Oh YES…they do play “Catch me if you can” very effectively (at least at the mass tourism Mecca I live).2 years ago,the local Council refrained from paying subsidies and they simply vanished,thus creating political costs from small hoteliers and room renters.
