Over there, not here, I’m afraid.
Has anyone else noticed this? On a cross country recently I enjoyed several outbreaks of charm. One, Signature at KBNA, declined to accept any parking (for 3 or 4 days) or other charges after they forgot to fuel the plane and kept me waiting while they did it. Not bad for an airport I’ve studiously avoided in the past, going to inconvenient outliers instead. (Even the taxi time at KBNA is moderate with their centre runway a favourite for GA).
At Atlantic, a weekend discount of $.50 / gal seemed to be in force (don’t know if this applies to all Atlantics, or just the 2 that I visited). Of course the gas is not cheap in the first place, but this got it below $5 / gal. And another ‘forgot’ the ramp fee when I whinged about how much like Europe it’s getting over there.
Overall, I enjoyed a better friendlier FBO experience at some of these chain operations than at some of the small town municipal operations. Never thought i’d say that!
No doubt credit is due in part to Aopa’s campaign. Come on Europe!
@Aveling, I think you’re right, at least WRT Signature. They’ve been kicked out of a couple of airports and the – well deserved! – bad reputation they’re getting must be hurting business. Atlantic have, at least in my experience, always been nice, but perhaps I was lucky. I’m 100% sure the AOPA campaign had more than a bit to do with that. Now, if Euro-AOPA (is there such a thing?) could get its act together…..
To be fair, I find handlers in Europe invariably polite. It’s just the bills aren’t polite!
