Good work by AOPA Greece!
I guess these two (from 2005) are permanent residents, but they are not in anybody’s way
What an idiot …
I was once almost refused to fly from Corfu to Crete, becasue I had “not reserved a slot”. The ATC people at Corfu claimed that there was “absolutely no parking space” on Heraklion airport and only after I insisted they agreed to call there and they made a “generous exception”.
When we landed in LGIR three hours later there was ONE other private aircraft, the wreck of an old Grumman in the grass, and the whole GA apron was empty. There was room for 30 airplanes …
I am in Greece every year, sometimes twice. But they can be really crazy …
I love Greece and flying down there, and Greeks are great people, but their officials do like their job creation and job protection.
The same stuff goes on here (UK) and it is just as ridiculous (especially in grotesque airport [over]staffing) but here the people tend to be a bit more subtle about it.
One could argue that the four CAA officials at some little Greek island, on say €50k each, each have half a dozen locals hanging on that €50k, because there are no other jobs there outside the bit of tourism in the summer. In Egypt, every taxi driver probably has about 20 locals hanging off him…
But the islands could do so much more to attract GA. I spoke to the ATCO at one of them, explaining to him that potentially “1 policeman” = “international airport” (which is how e.g. Losinj does it) and then lots more people could fly there. All of Greece is easily accessible in say a TBM from much of Europe even if there is no fuel where you are going. He didn’t get it at all.
But Santorini has no excuse. It has many thousands of cruise ship tourists (old ladies spending like crazy their husband’s inheritance) dumped at its port every year, they will never come back so it’s OK to rip them off, and the way businesses operate there fully reflects this. It is an awesome-scenic location though… if they had avgas they would get a lot more GA business.
I wonder how it “protects” his job if the airport manager doesn’t want AIRPLANES on his AIRPORT ?? It’s still not clear to me why they do that …
I think the Greeks are just unsure of how to deal with GA, add to this the can’t be bothered because the state owes me a living attitude that prevales in the country and you get a situation were it is the easy option to just find a reason to say no to the request for parking.
However I think the message from AOPA has been delivered load and clear to those at Santotini, I was there a few weeks back and was surprised to see the number of GA aircraft on the ramp.
One observation I would make is that if the airport authority did not insist on using part of the apron for the parking of ground equipment and temporary buildings they could double the parking area avalable for aircraft.
Finally I would like to congratulate AOPA Greece for taking this action, the laziness and deception of this govenment employed airport official who by discouraging GA traffic has taken a little money out of the pockets of the business people of Santorini who have to work hard to pay the taxes that pay for the employment of such officials, clearly he has failed to understand that landing and parking fees underwrite his salary.
I wonder how it “protects” his job if the airport manager doesn’t want AIRPLANES on his AIRPORT ?? It’s still not clear to me why they do that …
Remember Fawlty Towers?
There are managers who could run their business just fine if it wasn’t for those meddlesome, troublesome customers.
It may well have something to do with the fact that the Greek Airports are state run and therefore do not really rely on income from any but the big planes. So for his job security it won’t matter if the airport takes in a few Euros more or less.
In any event, well done AOPA Greece. I hope that the appropriate verdict will be handed down to this person and that other managers there who have the same ideas about parking restrictions on wide and empty tarmacs get the message to stop their stupidity.
Haha! Right! Fawlty Towers is very funny
That reminds how i had a warranty problem with an Apple Computer about 7 years ago. I called the Munich (!) Apple headquarter and they told me that I could not send eMail but that it would have to be a FAX (to Apple!). I then asked the guy if he had a balcony in his office and he asked “why?”. I told him I could send him a smoke signal from the city. (It changed a little later, but the story is really true)
When and if this comes before court (and that might well happen, as it must be a matter of principle to both parties), I am not so sure about the outcome:
I can well imagine the judge would prefer to believe the airport manager, who is after all some kind of civil servant, rather than the Swiss pilots – who are foreigners AND rich.
Are AOPA Greece’s pockets deep enough to exhaust Greek justice (appeal, …), then to carry on in Straßburg? Only I am not so sure their chances would be much better there… but I do wish them every success.
The judge doesn’t need to “believe” – all he needs to do is request to see the movement registry and receipts for collected parking fees from the HB planes :)
all he needs to do is request to see the movement registry and receipts for collected parking fees from the HB planes :)
Depends on in whose pocket they are there. Movement registrys can be forged easily and the last time I was in a Greek office, the paper piles are enourmeous, easy to construct a page or two. It would then be up to the court to send requests for copies of the flight logs to all the owners to prove him wrong. That would be AOPA’s job to do of course and I do hope they do their homework and if they have that list write to those people even before it goes to court.
They also might want to push the case in as so far to calculate the losses this guy has inflicted to his airport by refusing GA. I understand the Greeks are notriously cash starved…
