According to NOTAM if you’re landing or departing on Friday, Saturday or Sunday, at LDZD it’s mandatory to use GA terminal at 175€ charge per usage. I was very unpleasantly surprised to learn this today (actually I got info yesterday and today I paid the fee upon landing). I had to land to leave other crew member arriving from LFMD and continuing to LDSB. So he had to make 50 steps from apron through main building to exit but he wasn’t allowed because of mandatory GA terminal use, making this short stop very costly at total 220€.
It seems that practically all airports in Croatia (except Lošinj LDLO and Brač LDSB) became places to be avoided. Very sad for a country that used to be GA friendly.
Unfortunately that airfield is probably lost forever. Too attractive location and government in Croatia lacks any vision in tourism except building large hotels and trying to rip-off tourists and squeeze taxes from private renters as much as possible.
Emir wrote:
government in Croatia lacks any vision in tourism
What I do not understand is they seem to have no plan besides the summer and beach thing. Offer hiking, quality food, culture etc. to extend the season would seem like a good plan to me. Now all the profit has to be made in a few months and then the entire coast seems to shut down.
Emir wrote:
It seems that practically all airports in Croatia (except Lošinj LDLO and Brač LDSB)
This year we did try LDPV for the first time. There is no fuel but besides that it seemed like a nice GA airfield with a grass roots feel. Only thing I can not understand why somebody build that luxury villa in final approach and made a fancy website marketing it without mentioning it might be in short final of an airport ;-)
The real problem is bizjets, whose operators regard anything under 1k to be great value. That’s what I have been hearing for years. And this is easy money for the airports, who “naturally” give a handling concession to somebody who provides coffee and croissants. Whereas light GA does everything possible to avoid handlers.
There is no solution I can see.
What I do not understand is they seem to have no plan besides the summer and beach thing.
That has been puzzling me for years. Southern Croatian islands have great climate practically year around but nobody has an idea how to attract tourists.
This year we did try LDPV for the first time.
LDPV works in kind of grey zone… I won’t comment much publicly. But yes, it’s nice airfield and few nice towns are in taxi range.
It seems that practically all airports in Croatia (except Lošinj LDLO and Brač LDSB) became places to be avoided. Very sad for a country that used to be GA friendly.
Could you provide a list of affected airports and prices? I believe this should be spread via AOPA(s).
It’s ridiculous… the airports aren’t even near their max capacity and 220€ would cost me more than the flight there…
Here are few where I landed recently and was charged new prices:
- LDZA €250+ (increased handling via charging transport to the aircraft €50 per direction and GA lounge usage €80)
- LDSP €250+ (mandatory GA terminal usage €50 per passenger)
- LDZD €220+ (mandatory GA terminal usage on Friday, Saturday and Sunday at €175 per operation)
- LDDU €200+ (steadily increasing fees over time)
All these airports treat small GA aircrafts like business jets in terms of charging and what you actually get from handling is marshaling on arrival (and suddenly we are capable of doing everything on our own on departure) and a hundred-meter drive in van. Plus you always have to argue how many crew members you have and how a person without flying license can be a crew member. For business jets they of course haul their luggage, deliver drinks and snacks, bow, kiss their a$$es…
Sure, the word „ handling“ is most often used to extract money. But, a reality check, whether we like it or not. What the role of the handling agent in relation to the airport authority is SECURITY. Their main their job to make sure GA crew and pax do not stray away from their confined areas. Not much more. And when you need someone to do this, then he needs staff (with security training of course), some sort of premises, IT, etc. All this costs money, and when you distribute all these costs amongst a few GA movements (and no, there won‘t be many more of them if prices are lower), then 100-200 Euro is not a lot. Just from a costing perspective.
I have said it many many years ago, that eventually, all airline airports will go this way, except in case where some clever security solution or workaround is found. The solution light GA is GA airfields. When Croatia finally joins Schengen, one problem will be solved. But then, Croatia only has a handful of GA airfields along the entire coast. Italy at least does have hundreds of airfields.
For the rest, I have said it many times that the golden years of rewarding travel (not only GA) to Croatia are over. Too much ripoff and poor quality, too many crowds in summer, to little on offer off-season.
For the rest, I have said it many times that the golden years of rewarding travel (not only GA) to Croatia are over. Too much ripoff and poor quality, too many crowds in summer, to little on offer off-season.
Totally agree.
