I think you are going to pay 1k in many places around the world, often a LOT more than that. What did you think the big airports between Turkey and Australia, or in Oceania would charge? Have you actually spoken to recent earthrounders? Or at least read some or their blogs? https://www.earthrounders.com/
boscomantico wrote:
Have you actually spoken to recent earthrounders?
I think someone was doing fundraising due to his late arrival in Greenland, he landed 15min late and paid 1500Euros for ‘extended hours’ (100E/min)
Ibra wrote:
I think someone was doing fundraising due to his late arrival in Greenland, he landed 15min late and paid 1500Euros for ‘extended hours’ (100E/min)
Yep they are VERY strict about operating hours in Greenland. It’s around €100 for a standard stop, and goes up to around €1500 for anything outside M-Sat 9-5. Anytime on Sunday, and any holidays (they have a lot of non-standard holidays) is the €1500 charge. I once landed in Greenland 30 seconds before 5pm. What a relief!
I completely understand your distaste at having to pay exorbitant amounts for handing, especially compared to where you are used to flying.
Handling charges leave a bad taste in the mouth, and I like everyone else do our best to avoid them like the plague, but sadly the buccaneering days of blazing a cheap trail around the world are long gone, hence the need for a lot of sponsorship in recent RTW attempts.
You have to pick your battles, and in many cases as you head East, you will have to swallow these charges.
Extended long range fuel tanks will save a few expensive stops. I use a Turtlepac on these long trips and can normally get away with a singe stop in India and the Middle East to mitigate it.
1k for CIQ, insane!! Are you familiar with fees and procedures in neighboring countries (Indonesia, Malaysia, Timor, etc.)? I’m trying to plan the flight economically and fearing that 1k a stop is the going rate.
Chittagong (VGEG), in Bangladesh, used to be at least, a good stop as an alternative second stop in India. Handling there was around USD400 in 2019.
I have never stopped in Timor, but Indonesia is generally at par or more expensive than Thailand, depending on where you stop. Avoid Bali (WADD) for example as they have a USD5K “Special handling” fee, yet nearby Lombok (WADL), the adjacent island is around USD1.5K.
The jewel in cheaper stops is Malaysia, or at least it used to be when I was last there in 2020.
The majority of Malaysian airports have CIQ, even the smaller ones and are quite GA friendly, with a good level of English, however Malaysia was one of the most draconian Asian countries for applying Covid restrictions and I do not know if they still allow international arrivals at all of the smaller airports. During Covid all International arrivals were funnelled through a handful of the larger airports like Kuala Lumpur, even GA.
Wings Over Asia in Singapore should be able to give you more up to date suggestions for Malaysia.
Once you get to Australia, you will be back to easy cheap self handling, and an abundance of options.
Please let us know your own experiences. It helps others later.
Cheers – E
eal wrote:
Extended long range fuel tanks
Having read many stories over the past 2 decades it seems range is the key. From the writing people seem to be able to cope with a few expensive and annoying stops and have a great trip. But once you get below 1000NM range or so the number of such stops seems to spoil the experience…
