Situation at Cannes gets worse.
If you need to refuel your DA40 or any aircraft needing Jet then you are in for a mandatory 50 euro plus tax “tank fee” on top of their high cost of fuel. The Current french state of emergency “vigipirate” effectively means schengen is annulled and you have to park in the mandatory handling area for the police report. Sadly LFMD is an airport that has become very anti recreational aviation, so if you want to go to Cannes/Nice then your best solution is to land at Aix en Provence and drive for two hours. It’s a disaster for private flyers living in the Provence Cote Azur region.
I seem to recall that the current verdict on LFMD is that if you want hard surface parking it will be €100 by the time you are done, regardless of fuelling. This is what I paid in Sep 2017, TB20 1400kg.
It was a very smooth experience though, as one would expect of an airport with bizjet traffic. Well, except for yet another French ATC strike which completely screwed up the day, forcing a VFR departure which takes you way out over the sea and wastes about an hour if going north 
Two thoughts about landing fees :
Jujupilote wrote:
do we know the business case of a standard (no-fee) US FBO ? Do they make all their money on fuel or are they subsidized? or do they pay a rent to the airport owner ?
I am not aware of any ‘no fee’ FBOs here in the US. There usually is a ramp fee which is waived if you uplift fuel. The amounts vary from FBO to FBO, but usually are trivial (something like 7 or 10 USG). Overnight parking often does attract a fee, irrespective of fuel uplift. I recently paid $25 at Palm Springs for the overnight. This varies from airport to airport though, $ 25 is on the high side (e.g. Torrance is $ 7, Big Bear $ 5, IIRC). AFAIK they make their money from jet traffic and fuel. Possibly also get a cut on car rental, although I don’t know that. And yes, as a business they will have to lease their premises from the airport owner, most often the city.
At most airports here you have a choice of using an FBO or not, there almost always is a transient parking area and some sort of fuel availability. Personally, I tend to use FBOs as the fees are almost always offset against fuel anyway and they provide a nice service, e.g. coffee, briefing room, rest areas, car rental, crew transport, etc.
Don’t the US airports also get the FAA funding?
Peter wrote:
Don’t the US airports also get the FAA funding?
Yes, of course, but that has only indirectly to do with the FBOs. They are businesses.
That is my understanding. Or to be more precise the Fed Govt levies aviation fuel taxes which are then allocated across the airport system to cover operating and some capital costs.
Typically the US FBO rents his plot on the airport from the local government, which owns the land, but builds and pays for (or sometimes inherits) the structures – which eventually become local government property, after the FBO’s lease eventually runs out. The FBO’s ground rent is usually not expensive because in exchange for accepting Federal money for upkeep of the airport, the local government agrees that the land can be used only for aviation purposes. The FAA also provides any airport ATC (if applicable) at their expense. Supply and demand then takes over and given ‘aviation use only’ the resulting ground rent rate paid by the FBO is not often as high as the surrounding industrial or residential area.
The FBO makes his money from fuel sales and monthly hangar rent collected from individual plane owners, plus parking for jets and others who pay for red carpet service. The Federal government gets a cut from the fuel sales. Regardless, one way or another I have only rarely paid anything to land and park at a US airport for less than a day. For overnight parking it is usually a trivial amount unless you want to pay more, e.g. $5/night on local government owned transient parking.
I don’t believe I’ve flown to a US airport with fire fighting equipment. At my base for example, the fire fighting is provided by the same stations as the local area… and in fact most aviation accidents related to local airport operations occur off airport property. Given the small number of aircraft accidents even with 600 operations per day, they are an insignificant fraction of the workload for the local fire fighters.
Flyingwineman wrote:
The Current french state of emergency “vigipirate” effectively means schengen is annulled and you have to park in the mandatory handling area for the police report.
Is that for international flights or also for inner France flights? e.g. if i arrive from Chambery or Annecy and agree to park on the grass, do I still need handling?
There is a report in eddh.de from January for €70 for 3 days on gras without handling. How are they doing that?
How is it for departure? Is a direct departure to another Schengen Country possible without handling?
Flyingwineman wrote:
Sadly LFMD is an airport that has become very anti recreational aviation, so if you want to go to Cannes/Nice then your best solution is to land at Aix en Provence and drive for two hours. It’s a disaster for private flyers living in the Provence Cote Azur region.
How are the other airports in the region? I read that La Mole requires an introduction flight, but how about Le Castellet or Pierrefeu?
Le Castellet LFMQ is by design the luxury airport of the Cote d’Azur.
It is obvious from their website
Their pricelist looks reasonable decent :
It has a bizarre IAP, you can check it
The downside is that it is far from any town. It is part of a resort with a golf and luxury hotel. And the Paul Ricard racetrack.
I guess Cannes LFMD (far better located) just want to compete with them and grow their market share on bizjets.
Cuers LFTF is more basic. It is a military field with a civilian aeroclub and fuel pump. @denopa knows more I guess.
@Mooney_Driver, you who were a dispatcher, is firefighting equipment a requirement for charter jets ?
