How many people choose an airport by landing fee or fuel price?

In 33 years flying, I can count the number of UK airfields with no landing fee on the fingers of one hand, thumb excluded.

Do you think the presumably new normal for a while of social distancing may encourage airfields to be less hands on? That would be a bonus outcome.

I doubt it. In Austria, since last year, there finally is the legal option to fly without an „airfeld operation person“. Some airfields are not interested in implementing this because „it’s too dangerous if there is a crash“. I wonder what they intend to do about people flying vast distances without tactical witnesses on the ground in case of an accident.

In Germany, one of the – perhaps even the best regarded GA airfield – is Leer-Papenburg EDWF, which charges no landing fee if you refuel there. This has certainly helped its popularity, although the friendliness and good service of the staff are the main reasons given in PIREPS on eddh.de or Skydemon.

I do keep an eye on landing fees.
Many argue that it is small factor in the overall cost of private flying which is very true, but as a sole owner, running on a tight budget, at times it may be ‘the straw that breaks the camel’s back ’ so to speak.
For a travelling trip (maybe summer holiday etc)
I will be cautious but choose the locations we want first and if fees are ridiculous. Only then consider an alternative.
There has been many places I’ve visited where I would have been very comfortable with multiples of the fees paid.
For example
2 overnights and landing at Carcassone circa 14 Euro
3 overnights and landing at Empuriabrava circa 30 Euro.
1 overnight and landing with VIP handling at Grenoble with the loveliest helpful staff you could imagine
28 Euro.
We did avoid Bordeaux main airport for costs and landed for free (uplifted fuel) at Saucats just south, and paid circa 35 Euro each way for taxi.

When I don’t have time or money for flying I look for cheaper landing fees (in the uk) or maybe don’t land and just return home rather than paying £20+ which then may buy a takeout meal on the way home from the airfield ;-)

Airport landing fees are irrelevant as far as I’m concerned. Of my ~160 Maule landings last year barely 10% were at airports, for a total cost of about £150.

A 180 hp Maule only needs to refuel away from home if on a round trip of more than 8 hours so a few extra pence or cents per litre on occasional longer trips is insignificant.

Cost of onward ground transport (taxi/bus/train) is rarely applicable, since the whole point of a bushplane is to land within walking distance of where you want to end up (though unfortunately this is forbidden in some countries).

The cost of saving time and money by not using airports is about $12k to purchase suitable landing gear and tyres, somewhat increased maintenance, and a 5-10% fuel mileage penalty due to increased drag. Free cheese only comes in mousetraps…

I think most people don’t generally bother about hangarage when on a trip.

First, because many airports / airfields don’t generally offer it at all for visiting aircraft. Especially the big ones.

I have found the prices for short term hangarage to be wildly different across Europe. In the extreme cases, hanagarage costs exactly the same as parking on the ramp, and in others, it is prohibitively expensive.

The problem as always is to find out beforehand a) availability and b) price. So I usually don’t bother at all and just park outside (and sometimes find out afterwards that hangarage would not have been any or a lot more expensive than staying outside…). Another slight inconvenience of hangaring is that it may lead to slight delays, both in getting away from the airport after landing and in getting airborne again the next day. If I smell any possible delay or complication, I don’t bother and let it outside for one or two nights.

In winter, yes, a different story. Plus, when thunderstorms are forecast.

Tube and fabric tailwheel aircraft are prone to levitate so when possible I look for a hangar. The Alaska trick is to find shelter and raise the tail on a berm, and then hope the bears are more interested in the salmon

Sort of diverting the topic a bit, after flying in the US for years and almost never coming across an airport without tie down points (and usually ropes too!) at any transient parking area, I’m kind of puzzled why virtually zero UK airports have them. They aren’t expensive, and the UK does get thunderstorms in the summer, and they can prevent a lot of really expensive damage if a light aircraft gets moved by the outflow of a storm. (If I park on the grass somewhere overnight, I have The Claw and some ratchet straps to do the job).

alioth wrote:

Sort of diverting the topic a bit, after flying in the US for years and almost never coming across an airport without tie down points (and usually ropes too!) at any transient parking area, I’m kind of puzzled why virtually zero UK airports have them.

First of all, many UK (but also French) airports don’t even have any paved light airplane parking at all, just grass. Think of Cambridge, Exeter, or Dinard, Lyon-Bron, Beziers, and others. (I know, in some cases, one can get that by paying extra to some handling agent, but that isn’t really what a transient parking is).

And when they do have a paved apron, I guess they often aren’t purpose built, but just an old military or so piece of tarmac that is being used by light GA these days.

The ropes will get stolen. And the rings they often do exist, but are hard to spot with a lot of soil or water in the recess.