Over the 20 years I have been flying I’ve seen things getting gradually harder. More PPR.
Firstly, most visibly, Greece has largely been taken over by Fraport who have jacked up costs some 5x to 10×. This is still OK for the rare trip down there but only the really determined will do it, and it pretty well kills local GA down there, restricting it to a small number of airports. The avgas situation looked like improving, with LGIO getting both avgas and customs, but it has now lost avgas.
Then we have Spain, which saw a major collapse around 15 years ago (the EU money running out, I guess). Lots of PPR…
Then Italy, where something similar has happened. I’ve just read a long and really negative writeup on one domestic site, by a long time “total enthusiast” of Italy, who years ago would never say a negative word about it and would never let anyone else do so, now basically writing off the whole place, except for a few well managed friendly airports like Bolzano, Aosta, Elba… Maybe @Nuccio has a closer view of what’s happening?
Spain and Italy have seen a big move to ultralights, which operate off the main airport network, between strips. Here is a great writeup.
Croatia remains up there and GA activity has grown, due to friendly well managed airports and great scenic value. EuroGA is well known down there and has been a big influence in bringing more traffic, to Mali Losinj and Brac especially. Well, Dubrovnik is getting a bit expensive… though still 1/3 of Fraport levels. We are planning a fly-in to Sicily in Sep 2021 and I guess most people will fly there via Croatia 
And Slovenia is still good, with LJPZ being a great example.
One concern is coronavirus, which has probably permanently decimated GA activity in the north of Europe, and this is likely to show up in flying to the south. Also a lot of the “middle” airports – those which used to have airline travel but no longer do, but remain in business, and are very good for GA – are in danger of going bust due to their income having disappeared for a year.
Peter wrote:
One concern is coronavirus, which has probably permanently decimated GA activity in the north of Europe
We haven’t seen that. The very opposite, in fact.
Sweden was one if the few countries that did not shut down in Europe. Most others did shut down for a good proportion of the year which obviously will affect the amout of GA activity during the year. But the other point about small regional airports is perhaps most relevant.
It is collapsing if and only if you use a very narrow (and hence wrong) definition of “GA” by limiting it to the “around 1t MTOW SEP Cessna/Piper/Cirrus” kind of flying (the “Echo-Class” in Germany).
If one takes GA as what it really is – everything from (Para-)Gliders to Global8000 I’d argue there is no decline at all but only a tendency “away from the average”. At the upper end there is no question that private jet traffic has increased and got a major boost through the pandemic. On the lower end ULM is a thriving community across most countries you speak of (can’t comment on Greece but my impression is that small GA was never that big in Greece).
So rather than a “collapse of GA” I see just people moving from the average – which is perceived by many as “not much more utility/fun than ULM at the price of the regulation of large biz jets” – to either the upper or the lower end.
@gallois. I would have happily continued with ULM. My change back to certified was mainly for a legal reason: not allowed to be stationed here with a foreign reg ULM, and no ULM types that I like could be “certified” and put on Spanish reg. This is supposed to change but life marches on quicker than Spanish burocracy.
skydriller wrote:
Sweden was one if the few countries that did not shut down in Europe.
I don’t want to discuss the semantics of what is and is not a “shut down”.
But yes, it is true that Sweden did not apply most of the almost entirely symbolic restrictions on GA that some countries did. The voluntary closure of GA airports in some countries come to mind.
Peter wrote:
Then Italy, where something similar has happened. I’ve just read a long and really negative writeup on one domestic site, by a long time “total enthusiast” of Italy, who years ago would never say a negative word about it and would never let anyone else do so, now basically writing off the whole place, except for a few well managed friendly airports like Bolzano, Aosta, Elba…
Funny how you always avoid naming users here, even by their forum nickname. Actually, I find it weird, speaking so anonymously of a regular long-time contributor here.
Anyway, what you write above is just very imprecise, to say the least. It has always been much more differentiated. I have never been a “total enthusiast”. Either you are not able to pick up the nuances, or you deliberately choose to simplify things to make catchy statements. Either way, it is sad.
One is not supposed to identify people who use a name (possibly their real one) on one forum and a nickname here
I actually thought that post to be quite accurate – it is after all what everybody who “goes places” knows anyway – but I have long lost count of the number of beatings I have received for posting negative (but factually correct) stuff about some places.
The case of Southern Europe is an objective one it has to do with debt crisis rather than anything else, it’s surely how Fraport end up in Greece and why many people sold their expensive toys during economic downturn
There is some bias in these perceptions, most pilots I come across in France will say the UK is a flying heaven, which is true as they are mostly thinking about the thriving BMAA, BGA and LAA scenes, the reverse is also true, UK pilots will talk about French ULM & public airports like heaven
Pilots who have done load of flying and maybe scaling back on flying for X reasons will tend to give more negative reviews and get highly sensitive to extra bureaucracy or barriers, the perception of bureaucracy or challenges will change over time and at some point people just get tired of these things and maybe use them as excuse for not flying, it does not mean it’s not worth it for those who just started !
Just like the 200Euros landing fee, it’s fine for one-off fun landing but you don’t want to pay that every weekend !
