I have not seen their balance sheet, but can’t help being very very sceptical.
120000 € yearly from hangar rental is the biggest fish in the pond indeed. But it comes with its cost too: depreciation, insurance, possibly periodical inspection. And how many fields have 50 planes based?
30000 € / year from fuel is not enough to pay a single employee to operate the pump – though if it is self service, it might work. Still there’s a good deal of expense in maintenance, periodical safety certification, extra insurance, staff training and certification (monkeys are not allowed to operate or manage fuel pumps, and to good reason).
As for the landing fees: I can’t imagine many fields receiving 14 paying visitors 365 days per annum, especially not at 10 €/landing, though some might.
An airfield of that category needs fencing (again depreciation, maintenance, repair) and an access control system (depreciation, maintenance, and staff to issue/renew/withdraw access rights)
Who or what pays for repair and maintenance of runways/taxiways/aprons?
Some general expenses like toilets -a requirement where staff are employed, and more stringent generally for a place open to the general public) – and electrical installation – which must be of industrial grade. Internet access, licenses for R/T and any navaids installed… and I am sure I am forgetting many other cost factors.
And how much are they paying for renting the land? Even at farming rate?
Jan_Olieslagers wrote:
As for the landing fees: I can’t imagine many fields receiving 14 paying visitors 365 days per annum, especially not at 10 €/landing, though some might.
An airfield of that category needs fencing (again depreciation, maintenance, repair) and an access control system (depreciation, maintenance, and staff to issue/renew/withdraw access rights)
No, our airfield by far exceeds these numbers, I believe around 10,000 landings a year (euphemistically called 20,000 “movements”). All the infrastructure can be depreciated over a very long period of time, let’s say 30 years for runway and hangars, that frees a lot of money for interest rates. There is no fencing or anything involved and the pump is self service. If allowed by law, it could do without AFIS which would turn the airfield into a cash cow.
You absolutely can run small GA airports without a loss.
Jan_Olieslagers wrote:
And how much are they paying for renting the land? Even at farming rate?
Depends on the history of the airfield, usually nothing.
Jan_Olieslagers wrote:
not enough to pay a single employee to operate the pump
Why do you need any employee for that? He’ll twiddle thumbs most of the time anyway. For the residents install some sort of card or key terminal, and for the odd visitor have some admin staff hand out a special key and collect the fees, or have someone do that on request. Pretty much all pilots I know would be happy to fuel themselves.
Jan_Olieslagers wrote:
any navaids installed
Happily, the american taxpayer pays for the installation of GPS satellites 
Sorry, but, airfields run as airfields, rarely make money. The large commercial airports are turned into vast shopping malls, with pubs and resteraunts, simply because that is where revenue generation is. Not aeroplanes, today, they are almost secondary necessities. Small GA airfields must be cost crunchers, and look at every ingenious way to bring more capital in. Take the Oban fiasco on the Scottish West Coast. A local council sold the dream of air travel. Currently losses 500k per annum, has already lost some 13million, and is virtually useless, but, GA visitors have a very nice airfield to arrive at. Problem is, council run, it closes at 5 in the summer, and they will MOR you if you break curfew. This is also taxpayers money, as is the Greek tragedy….
Sorry, but, airfields run as airfields, rarely make money
That’s true in N Europe, unless there are special circumstances
Otherwise, commercial property is the only way to cover the costs of a tarmac airfield . For example Shoreham EGKA has ~50k movements and at say £20 base landing fee it would be OK. But a previous owner sold most of the commercial property rental income to some bank and now a base landing fee of £30 is required.
If you want to pay £10/€10 (which seems to be the absolute upper limit for some pilots) then your non-subsidised options are probably limited to run-down places which will become housing estates as soon as the owner owner dies and his widow is offered millions by the property sharks who have been circling the place for the previous 20 years…
IMHO Greece is a bit like Scotland. You have to treat it like an essential transport facility and just accept the cost. And realise that if the money was not dumped at the airport, you would have another 50 locals living off social security and having nothing to do all day.
Airports are cheap, they don’t cost much compared with other infrastructure. But, the cost escalates with the number of passengers being handled. A basic GA airfield costs nothing to operate. The cost doesn’t start before scheduled/larger flights starts, with EFIS and fences and security and whatever infrastructure is needed. That is also when the income starts. Money = passengers. It’s just that there are other reasons to keep an airport going than to make money out of it. At many places an airport is essential for the entire local community, the same way a road is essential, or a bridge (which costs much more) or railway (even more).
LeSving wrote:
At many places an airport is essential for the entire local community, the same way a road is essential, or a bridge (which costs much more) or railway (even more).
Building an airport is not the issue, first of all they are all already there (who builds new airports in Europe these days?) and it’s not so difficult to find money at some point to build the infrastructure. A bridge is very expensive to build but not so expensive to maintain.
My airport was built because at some point in the 1960s, the management of Europe’s largest manufacturer of women underwear thought they needed an airfield. Then it was given to the municipality for free and now the whole thing is just about how to fund the ongoing maintenance of the infrastructure. A lot of GA airfields in Germany were former military airfields, we benefitted from being occupied by more than 6 nations at the same time who all needed their airfields 
If it wasn’t for the mandatory AFIS, it would be dead simple to operate commercial viable GA airfields in a lot of places here. The only thing you do not want is rely on municipality subsidies because the day the city council has to vote whether to pay for the airfield or the kindergarten, you’ve lost.
achimha wrote:
The only thing you do not want is rely on municipality subsidies because the day the city council has to vote whether to pay for the airfield or the kindergarten, you’ve lost.
It depends where you are. As I said, many places the local community cannot exist without the airport. It is essentially no airport – no kindergarten, even though the airport only handles 3-4 scheduled flights each day.
LeSving wrote:
As I said, many places the local community cannot exist without the airport.
Yes but those places are extremely rare in Central Europe. Very few GA airports are widely accepted by the community. In Germany I guess EDMS Straubing would be one of them because it has managed to attracted very successful companies and has a lot of high paid jobs. I don’t know any other GA airport like that. The German islands to some degree, they’re probably the best equivalent we have to remote and disconnected places in Scandinavia.
Yes but those places are extremely rare in Central Europe. Very few GA airports are widely accepted by the community
But, Greece isn’t central Europe.
A ferry from Paros to Santorini takes about 8 hours…
I think an airport on Sitia, Paros, Kithira, Kalymnos, Leros, Ikaria, etc is extremely well accepted by the community.
It would be tragic if Greece got shafted into shutting those down. Especially as there is absolutely zero prospect of the 300BN+ debt ever being even partly repaid at the end of it all.
