Hopefully they kick the handling companies out as well…
Is this related to Ryanair’s long-time local subsidies having been declared illegal?
It must be good news for GA. The airports might start looking at other sources of revenue. Well, unless the said airport gets shut completely, which may happen in Spain where so many airports have almost no traffic.
The story of airports looking for new sources of income (GA) after CAT leaves is a rather British one. Their airports are businesses. Airports in the south of Europe aren‘t businesses. They are public infrastructures, where money is gained through EU founds and then buried (by the millions) by having 50+staff doing nothing.
In any case, Ryanair leaving doesn‘t change much I am sure. There will still be some CAT there. And as long as there is any CAT, the EU requires sterile aprons, strict segregation of (unsafe) GA and therefore mandatory handling. If you want to get away from that in Spain, you need to use GA-only airfields.
boscomantico wrote:
If you want to get away from that in Spain, you need to use GA-only airfields.
Not necessarily (although I don’t disagree with the general slant of your comment). A case in point is Granada LEGR that has both CAT and is reasonably GA friendly. I wouldn’t be surprised if LEGE was going to go the same way. RYR seem to have switched concept (and have said so), inasmuch as they are trying to go more to the main airports. I’m sure they’ll build up more at BCN.
I am afraid your time in Spain is now far back. Even Granada nowadays requires handling (i.e. apron transport) in many cases.
But yes, there still are AENA airports where they do allow GA pilots and their pax to walk to the terminal, even in places where GA and CAT share more or less the same apron…
There are two angles here.
One is whether it is under say €100 and then it is ok for the very occassional trip or a fly-in; in the context of burning avgas this is not material (as long as you don’t say this on one of the UK chat sites (incl. FB) because you will get this).
The other is being based there, and then you have to try for a much better deal.
Some in Spain can’t find a reasonable deal and decide to take a very different route.
Gents,
While handling is mandatory in most Spanish airports with CAT. The only absolutely service is a “transfer” from your parking spot to the terminal and viceversa.
The tricky thing here is that if you contact one of the handling operators or FBO’s they will charge you around 100€ as if you were a biz jet with a fancy mercedes van and cold drinks.
You always have to contact Iberia handling at airports where Iberia is available. Ask specifically for “escort service”. They will just charge 9€ for each trip to the terminal, 18€ in total.
This obviously applies to Ibiza,Almeria, etc…
Iberia signed this special areangement with Aena a few years ago.
In airports where Iberia is not available you may try contacting Swissport.
Enjoy your flights!
We did this re the 2017 Menorca fly-in.
As you see in the above link, in Spain there was a law which enables you to insist on minimal handling. Is that still in place?
It wasn’t worth much because the handlers which didn’t want to do this got around the legal requirement by simply not replying. Human ingenuity works well when it comes to making money out of people who are over a barrel 
Peter,
It’s not a law, just an agreement between the Airport Manager (AENA) and the handling companies. As you may imagine, they have to accept to offer this “basic” service in order to be able to operate and offer other services. Apparently they not very intererested in offering it since they are only interested in bigger planes. You should always try to contact the big companies like Iberia or Swissport.
P.S: last week in Ibiza Iberia didn’t answer my e-mails. I had to phone them just to confirm they were offering the service and I gave them my flight details. Once I landed I phoned them again and requested the pick-up. It worked flawless.
speed wrote:
It’s not a law, just an agreement between the Airport Manager (AENA) and the handling companies.
More specifically, it’s a regulated price service that the main handling provider must provide. Handling in each airport is subject to a public bidding process. The company winning that bidding in one airport is forced to apply the regulated price of each service. Usually Iberia or Swissport are the winners, so they are the main providers in the majority of airports. The other companies are not forced to apply the regulated fees and can ask whatever price they want.
Coming back to LEGE, I’ve never been there but fees are the same in almost all AENA airports: you can base your aircraft there and park (in the ramp) for about 170 euro per month if MTOW>1.5 T, 100 € otherwise. Probably there is no hangar space available, but I don’t know for sure. Landing fee is approximately 25 €
All the info about AENA prices:
Aena_Price_Guide_2019_pdf
local copy
