Recently I landed at 19:55 lcl (due to weather) at an airport with operating time 0800-2000 lcl.
With taxying, bags, cover etc, we left the airport building at 20:15 (not too bad actually IMHO)
To my suprise, I found a late operations charge on my invoice, exceeding landing & parking. The response to my protest was: we had to stay longer, therefore you have to pay. I paid under protest and the issue is still under discussion with the management.
What is your experience ?
Is this normal / usual / bad practice ?
I did pay a PPR fee before at a different airport, consciously arriving one hour after closing and naturally accepted the fee, but here ? I thought reasonable after landing activities are to be expected and included in the normal fee schedule ?
I’d say that in some places they will count the time until the moment you vacate the runway, in others – until you stop fully (legal flight time).
After you stopped it all depends on general rules – if they have to be there while you are inside the airports, then yes, you’d have to pay.
If the rules are the you can be there unattended outside the normal ops hours, then it’s a different story.
ch.ess wrote:
Recently I landed at 19:55 lcl (due to weather) at an airport with operating time 0800-2000 lcl.
With taxying, bags, cover etc, we left the airport building at 20:15
It depends how they define “opening time”. There could be different opening times. AFIS/TWR, fire, rescue, “aerodrome” etc. At smaller Avinor airports, where this for the most part is of any concern in Norway, you would most probably simply be left alone – with no means for how to get out of the airport. If you didn’t have a so called PFLY, they could even report you for trespassing. For any service outside opening hours, be it TWR, fire or whatever, you would have to pay for it. You can use the airport (with PFLY), but it would be void of service.
It’s not clear what kind of service you got, but it wouldn’t come as a surprise to me if some Avinor airport also would do the same thing: charge you extra if you caused them to stay longer. I would say though, it is very dependent on the person(s) closing up the airport.
That’s the plus of modern UK security. Tower, fire, etc can go once your parked. Security are there 24/7/365.25. :-)
It sounds like sharp practice to me.
Clearly if an airport is open until 2000 then that won’t mean the staff can be getting into their cars at 2001. Or if it does, then the airport is not really ‘open’ until 2000 is it? It’d mean the airport was open until some unspecified earlier time that means the doors can be locked at 2000 having dealt with the last aircraft. You can’t be expected to work out what that time is, nor is most of it within your control.
A bit like in hotels when breakfast is advertised as until 1000, but you get dirty looks and huffing and puffing if you sit down to eat it at 0950. Which is it, 1000 or some earlier time? If earlier, say so!
I would pay them with a credit card, then dispute it. Ask them if the time in the AIP is incorrect, then if there is some unspecified ‘last landings’ time ahead of the actual closure time. Make them squirm at the inconsistency. If all else fails, issue a chargeback through the credit card company.
No option to go around 
I guess it’s only an issue if you are being handled? it depends on the person closing the airport, ATC are really sharp on landing times you have to land & park before ATC closure, the rest of services usually stay a bit up to tidy the place and I expect the surcharge cover these?
I landed at SanSebastian very late at night, I recall they had clear distinction between AD times, PPR extension times and ATS times (I feel grateful that in France, landing very late is not an issue financially but getting physically out late on the night can be a serious problem)
If it closes at 8 then everyone starts heading home at 8.05. If it closes fifteen minutes later then they go home 15 minutes later. Would you like it that they don’t get paid for this ? I just don’t get it. It’s like going in to a shop and seeing a nice jumper, and then expecting a free pair of socks. Time is money.
Pig wrote:
If it closes at 8 then everyone starts heading home at 8.05. If it closes fifteen minutes later then they go home 15 minutes later. Would you like it that they don’t get paid for this ? I just don’t get it. It’s like going in to a shop and seeing a nice jumper, and then expecting a free pair of socks. Time is money.
If the published hours are to 8, and you land at 7:55, you are explicity within the operating hours of the airfield.
If the airfield is staffed between certain hours, any deviations are between the employer and the staff. Why didn’t the staff go home at the normal time? This is their problem, not yours.
For example, my home base (when I lived in Canada) is the busiest airport by aircraft movements (not passengers) at about 210,000 movements per year, or about 575 a day. If you land outside of staffed hours for the FBO (07:00 to 20:30), surprise, surprise, no one is there. However, the fuel pump still accepts credit cards, and there are no landing or takeoff fees for GA. The tower is staffed from 07:00 to 23:00, if you land outside of ATC hours the airfield is uncontrolled, i.e. you self announce your intentions and go about your business. I don’t understand why any airfield or ATC employees would be required to stay beyond their normal working hours, except under unsual circumstances.
It is a bit tongue in cheek, but… a normal GA aircraft does not need a person on the ground to perform a landing. The pilot of the landing aircraft has demonstrated, by virtue of their license, that they are able to land an aircraft and park it. By passing their medical they have demonstrated that they are able to walk from the aircraft and leave the airfield. It is only in the UK and Europe that the airfield considers you need someone to hold your hand…
I spoke to someone who had a bad experience with Bournemouth in c. 2010. Due to land at 1955, the controller made him orbit for sequencing so he landed a few minutes after the closing time of 2000, increasing the charge from £80 to £1200 (from vague memory). The airport did honour the original lower figure after it was contested, but the justification was that it cost £x thousand per hour for fire and rescue.
But yes, I completely agree with Canuck
If the airport closes at 8 and you are off the premises at 7.59 then I agree. Absolutely. But if you’re late you’re late. He left the building 15 minutes late. Someone has to lock the door so it is your problem.
As for the way US aviation, you are right. We can but dream.
