Another one which has gone from expensive to unaffordable. Pity, I thought Malta might be a nice place to visit one day.
Emir wrote:
€200 which is definitely way too much for 1.8t aircraft with crew only, no passangers.
I landed May 17th (1.7t aircraft PA32, 2 crews, 2 passagers, from France to Greece, 1 day parking) and I paid 182,83 EUR (Aviaserve).
It’s a shame handling is so expensive. I was there in December and hired a local 172 to fly to Comiso and back. On that occasion I did not pay any handling charges, but maybe it was because I hired from a local club.
Out of curiosity… Are we sure handling is mandatory? I have not read it anywhere on the aip.
geekyflyer wrote:
Are we sure handling is mandatory?
I also found nothing in the AIP. I asked again and I received this response:
“A ground handling is mandatory, I have also quoted the Ground Handling Service Provider’s emails for your perusal.
Rgds,
Marilyn Scalpello
Officer
Airside Operations”
The good news of Malta: AVGAS100LL is available @ EUR 1.635 (VAT included) per litre from the local fuel supplier ENEMED. They accept UVAIR/MULTISERVICE cards, cash in EUR/USD and/or major credit cards (May 17th 2016). Very fast, no problem.
Luqa is a bit weird in that handling is mandatory by virtue of the requirement to have a landing slot. If you don’t have a handler when requesting a slot the airport will nominate one!
I cant believe the airlines are paying a proportional fee as compared to a prop GA. Its yet another bulsh*t gouging by the airport. The local Govts is clueless about what these operators are doing. That was pretty much evidenced by the reception we got from Mayors office at Carcassonne.
What the hell industry does Malta have? I would guess tourism. Why do I say that? Because they (Malta) has a tourism office at my Metro stop.
So the airport keeping out tourists by pricing them out before they can even set foot in the country is at odds with their National interests. Another case of a letter to the Chamber of Commerce and the Mayors office.
So a 200 Euro nonsense fee will keep people from spending a few 1000 Euros as tourists. Yes it makes a lot of business sense.
The local Govts is clueless about what these operators are doing. That was pretty much evidenced by the reception we got from Mayors office at Carcassonne.
Could not put it better myself!
Same happens all over the place. The airport operator hoodwinks the local council / chamber of commerce into paying millions to keep a load of useless people at work.
All the more easily done in a culture of nice food and wine and nice lunches 
Same was happening where I am based – until the council one day realised what was happening and, as per standard public servant “competence” – they sold the place to the first crook who came along, who asset stripped the airport, selling a load of property rents to some shark bank.
In their last published statistics (http://www.independent.com.mt/articles/2015-06-17/local-news/Malta-Tourism-Authority-publishes-statistical-report-for-2015-6736137413) Malta has over 4,500 tourists arrving and departing per day on average. There is simply no more space left to build any more hotels (Malta is my favourite holiday destination, but if they keep concreting it over any more than that I will stop going there), so attracting even more tourists is not a top priority. They rather develop their finacial services instead, which have become quite a success over the last decade. I am sure however, that individual tourists who fly there in their Falcon 7X business jets and pay the 2000 Euro handling fee with a smile are still welcome.
Personally, I have the fondest memory of handling in Malta. We were once handled by Medavia and that was the best service I received in my career. One handling agent was assigned exclusively to us (and we flew a shabby unpressurised piston powered cargo plane then!) and he did everything for us. From marshaling us in, getting the cargo unloaded, organising fuel, booking us into an excellent hotel at an incredibly cheap rate (this alone must have paid back most of the handling charges!) driving us to the hotel personally, picking us up at the hotel the next morning, rushing us through security and the “paperwork offices” – without which airports around the Mediterranean can not be – within a few minutes and finally pulling back the chocks and waving us out of the parking stand. I don’t know how much we paid, but it was certainly only half of what a regional airport in the UK would have charged for exactly zero services provided.
I can’t believe the airlines are paying a proportional fee as compared to a prop GA.
Of course they aren’t. An airliner brings, say, 150 passengers, who all spend a good deal of time at the airport, mostly on departing. So they unavoidably consume – drinks, snacks, tax-free stuff, all very much overpriced. What is your amount/degree of consumption at such an airport? I for one can’t blame the airport for getting some money from you in the only way they can. Perhaps some airports actually pay the airlines for coming there.
Airports have become commercial operations over the last couple of decades, if you don’t like that spirit than do like myself and stay away from them. And remember who breathed that mentality over Europe, to begin with one Mrs. T. Europe’s full of charming affordable small airfields. Not all have an IFR approach, though 
Jan_Olieslagers wrote:
Perhaps some airports actually pay the airlines for coming there.
Which is part of the business model of companies like RyanAir by the way. I was told that my homebase airport collects 30 percent of every Euro spent at the shops and restaurants inside the terminals. So the passenger who buys himself a new iPad at the duty free shop pays actually more to the airport than the pilot of a piston single…
