We would be interested in taking care of an airfield in the country, but this one is a little bit too much to the North for the Mrs 
Make it a destination. Put a few maintenance shops on the field, cheap self-serve fuel, rwy lights and night landing capability, a kick-a** restaurant with airside seating, invite every flying club or historical flying society to have events there and they’ll come.
You may be under-estimating the challenge of separating UK GA pilots from their cash
You have to start with this
then move on to this
then throw in some cucumber which was chopped up a week previously so is all dried out and curled up
[could not find a suitably disgusting photo, but I can get some pics at an airfield not too far from Biiiirmingham]
and then you have to charge under £10 because if you go over that, the place will get slagged off
I am advised that the UK is not the only country like that but nobody else will admit it on a forum
I think 2.5M is a lot given the above cap on landing fees, the utilisation of the “stodge outlet” to good VFR days (because there is nowhere else to go in the vicinity, so most traffic will be burger runs) and the lack of proximity of wealth (for PPL training).
But I could well be wrong.
Peter wrote:
I am advised that the UK is not the only country like that but nobody else will admit it on a forum
Well at least the UK seems to have plenty of airfield restaurants/bars. I can’t say we got many of those where I fly. Some frozen food in the clubhouse microwave is the best we can hope for.
Airborne_Again wrote:
Some frozen food in the clubhouse microwave is the best we can hope for.
Then Norway is much better: on some airports, you can be lucky and find some vending machine :-)
But you can also get lucky and get some vaffel in Tynset if someone decided to make some. Or coffee and kanelsnure in Meråker/Øyan if the owner is around.
As a general rule, if you want to eat something at an airport/airfield in Norway, take the food with you :-)
Peter wrote:
because there is nowhere else to go in the vicinity, so most traffic will be burger runs
Spalding looks within easy range of a Brompton (especially given how flat the surroundings are), and boasts at least one sushi restaurant.
The need for something edible depends on what is in the vicinity. Loads of French airports (where you would expect great food) have barely a vending machine, too.
The UK GA airport food market is 99% stodge and cakes, and you have to make money out of that, unless people can use the airport as a place to fly to to get a taxi somewhere. This is also why so many of them shut during the CV19 shutdowns. No cafe = no money.
A good airport restaurant with a quite conventional menu and not too steep prices can be a huge assett to any airfield. Not only for fly in crowd but also for locals and day tourers who like to take the kids to a nice place where they can watch airplanes and have ice cream.
I know quite a few places like that around here. None of them are gourmet temples or vegan places (which would not work at an airfield anyhow) but down to earth places with good traditional food and in the lower price range. Apart, landing fee and restaurants usually don’t connect.
(Hmm, there goes an idea, how about taking a leaf out of some US FBO’s book and offer free landings if you either fuel over a certain amount or take a restaurant bill over a certain amount? I would think that might work quite well if they all work together. )
A good airport restaurant with a quite conventional menu and not too steep prices can be a huge assett to any airfield. Not only for fly in crowd but also for locals and day tourers who like to take the kids to a nice place where they can watch airplanes and have ice cream.
Anyone who has visited Lesce LJBL (in Slovenia, near beautiful lake of Bled, one of the most active GA airports in Slovenia) can confirm they exceed the above description. The food is excellent at very reasonable prices and the restaurant is packed not only with pilots but also with locals and random people touring the area.
The ultimate airfield restaurant has to be El Paso at Mali Losinj. Every time I fly over Croatia I try to arrange my trip to refuel there just for the lunch. Fresh grilled seafood and meats, outstanding salad, great ambience. While it is technically past the immigration ‘control’, by about 100m, immigration seemed perfectly happy to let me out and back in so I could have lunch without bothering with the normal formalities.
