Wow, that’s something. Thought EUR 2000 is a rate specific to countries outside of the Western world. At least with a TBM one can land at cheap alternates. Not so with a CJ. My EPWA alternate (700m, EUR 12) shown below.
loco wrote:
So it would be 130 Euros if one sticks to operating hours?Correct, if you stick to the tower operating hours, but those operating hours are quite useless for most GA (see the times mentioned in my original post). Airport operating hours is a different thing at Buochs. The airport is still open on late afternoons, evenings and weekends, but you have to pay the expensive handling fee for each movement if it’s uncontrolled. For central/western-Europe, those fees are simply unacceptable for GA. We’re not talking about Heathrow, Charles de Gaulle, Schiphol or Frankfurt here, we’re talking about a (former) sleeping military airbase with just one 2 km runway, without any further infrastructure, and without any airline operations. If it wasn’t for Pilatus, the airport could be abandoned today.
loco wrote:
t least with a TBM one can land at cheap alternates. Not so with a CJ. My EPWA alternate (700m, EUR 12) shown below.
Not sure how did you taxied across from that tight concrete runway to the grass taxiway 
?
Frans wrote:
The Tower is only manned during the week (MO-FR) from 07:30 to 12:05 and from 13:15 to 17:05 LT. This means landing at midday, in the evening or at weekends, a huge handling fee will be charged. To sum it up a bit for a weekend trip, here is a cost estimation:
To be fair, the opening hours have historic reasons since Buochs is a military airport although operated by an civilian organization since 2004. Those tower times are operating hours of MIL in Switzerland. If you visit during those hours and don’t do customs it is actually not that expensive. Last time I paid around 35CHF with a Cessna 172.
Sure, you can visit Buochs quite cheap if you follow your mentioned ‘rules’, but that’s only practicable for some fun or instruction flights during the week, inside Switzerland. What about a weekend trip? If I want to use Buochs cheap, I have to arrive on Friday before 5 pm and may not leave before Monday at 8 am, plus I need a customs stop at another airport for both ways. That’s not practicable. A day trip during the week isn’t much better either, since you have to leave before 5 pm to prevent outrageous fees.
To be fair, the opening hours have historic reasons since Buochs is a military airport although operated by an civilian organization since 2004. Those tower times are operating hours of MIL in Switzerland.
Thats interesting, I thought only Emmen and Alpnach are still managed by military ATC and Buochs has now Skyguide?
NeilC wrote:
Stark contrast with Malta LMML where the landing fee is a few Euros. Albeit there is mandatory handling for international flights which costs Euro 100+
And this is a problem. Airports which are only inexpensive for A to A flights but prohibitively expensive for visitors may as well not exist at all – they destroy the network effect for GA which is needed if GA is to be useful.
Ibra wrote:
Not sure how did you taxied across from that tight concrete runway to the grass taxiway ?
Yeah, I love flying to this kind of fields. Just afraid that one day a rodent will convert all the handling savings to “savings”.
Frans wrote:
Thats interesting, I thought only Emmen and Alpnach are still managed by military ATC and Buochs has now Skyguide?
That is correct. Buochs ATC is Skyguide but the airfield is under military jurisdiction.
And this is a problem. Airports which are only inexpensive for A to A flights but prohibitively expensive for visitors may as well not exist at all – they destroy the network effect for GA which is needed if GA is to be useful.
I agree in principle, but as I said, in Malta visiting GA can offset the cost of handling with the tax free concession on fuel. Nothing is perfect, but this setup is better than many other international airports. And lots of GA visits Malta
@loco
Re that photo, what type of AC is it and where has it been taken (if you know)?
