This seems to be a clear pattern.
In any pilot community, most of them avoid the bigger airports in their area. Those airports are used mostly by foreign visitors.
The reason could be that visitors are more likely to need the services (fuel, customs/immigration, hard parking) and are willing to pay the, say, €50 for that.
Of course the UL community avoids the bigger places anyway, everywhere.
It makes the sustainability case for GA infrastructure difficult to understand, and may help explain why airports are reluctant to drop prices – because most of the traffic which (it is claimed) they are not getting, they would not be getting anyway.
Well in Flight training we use them on a regular basis and having EDDG in our backyard delivers great flexibility if you come home late or in bad weather.
Problem is with most bis airports: It’s a hassle to get in and out that you don’t have with the smaller airfields.
Most pilots I know avoid bigger airports (any with a CTR and ATC) unless they have a specific reason to go there (training mostly) or there are no smaller fields available in the vicinity. Airports are rarely flown to casually, unlike smaller airfields.
mh wrote:
Problem is with most bis airports: It’s a hassle to get in and out that you don’t have with the smaller airfields
And in most cases are far less charming! I’ll choose any airport closest to my destination with a decent paved runway. Any airport with mandatory handling, gates and security I try to avoid when I can.
I don’t think I would specifically avoid a big airport if the fees are reasonable. Apart from IFR and night training opportunities, I personally see quite a bit of charm in flying into a big airport, whether I am doing it on my own or giving a ride to my friends, especially on a cloudy winter day or at dusk when the entire “christmas tree” of approach lights is lit. It may also be a possibility to pick up my guests who have taken an airline flight from far away, and give them a lift to the small airfield at the final destination.
Similarly, if the fees are low, it creates a much better market for small air taxi operators, who can then pick up airline passengers and take them onward to small airfields – for these short flights, airport fees make up a significant part of the total cost. This may actually be a legitimate argument at the EU level to create a more favourable environment for small business.
Apart from the landing fees or approach/ifr/atc capabilities,
You get to see familiar faces when you fly from smaller airports and you enjoy some freedom from the hassle/process involved in big airports, you just fly from your preferred wet airstrip :)
In the other hand, it seems that most of your friends will get impressed by landing in Manchester/Norwich and will remember how cosy the airport lounge than the actual flying
Regardless of what I wrote above, being based at a large airport has many merits of the fees are reasonable and the security does not generate too much of a hassle. Both is a given at my current base of Hannover, which is an excellent airport for GA with the GAT once described as “FBO-like” in one eddh.de review. Also were else does one have access to 3500m of hard runway?
I can see most of GA avoids big airports – that is to be expected. Unless you want to go to visit someone in a city near one of these, there is little fun in flying to the airport, which is all that many do. There is no community there; no social scene. And many are regarded as pricey (even if the costs are small compared to the avgas burnt).
What continues to surprise me is how strongly defined this is in some countries, especially in the south of Europe. Many of these airports are not expensive at all, are near very interesting cities, but are almost devoid of GA traffic. Yes the country in question has a lot of homebuilt and ultralight activity, which presumably exists almost wholly between the small airfields and “farm strips”.
My wife and me never had any problems with big airports. As we are based at EDDS we feel more comfortable to fly into an airport with a CTR and professionals on the tower, having everbody under control, than to go to small airfields where you allways have to expect some coming in without position reports in the traffic pattern or doing xercises with switched off transponder so no TAS is able to identify the plane.
I enjoy the bigger airports and being part of the busy life, both airside and landside, with a small aircraft.
Still, it’s rarely useful to fly in and out of, say, EDDL for me because the aircraft flown are not based there and then it is a fair deal for expensive. Sometimes, it makes sense for logistical reasons to position the aircraft from the nearby GA field to EDDL the evening before to be able to take-off early in the morning or to get there by public transport. I’m always happy if I have a reason to do that.
