I have been able to categorise most of the threads out there on ‘rip-off’ landing fees as either being a bit whiny or having a point to some extent. However I’ve been watching this thread develop for a few days now and for some reason this one really gets my goat.
For a start the criticisms don’t add up. The fees for his four-seater have gone up by £3, or 75p a seat, after a good few years – probably in line with inflation. The price for two seaters has actually GONE DOWN! The airfield operator might actually be trying to help hard-pressed aviators who might (should?) be flying smaller machines in order to keep the cost down and will see threads like that and wonder why they bother. The Isle of Wight is an expensive place in general due to being an island. The fees are the same or very similar as the nearby grass strip which carries the usual concerns about condition etc. All in all I think it is actually good value for money when compared to other UK airfields.
The penny-pinching attitude also scares me. As has been mentioned already, a go-around would cost far in excess of this and the cost of doing one for safety reasons should never even cross the mind. What about fueling up to go home? If the airfield has ‘rip-off’ fuel will this aviator put in the minimum amount and then risk running out on the way home? Even allowing the engine temp to get to the green on a cold day would cost in excess of £3!
I’m not saying that only rich people should be allowed to fly. Far from it. But there are all sorts of ways to save on flying costs without taking the time to slag off an airfield operator over £3! I would not want to group own an aircraft with this person.
Shoreham seem to also attract a lot of slagging off. Again, I’m not sure why. It offers a lot of facilities in an expensive part of the country. It isn’t even all that much dearer than Gloucester which never gets a bad word said about it. People forget that the fees include a big chunk of VAT for a start. Fine, if they don’t want to spend £27 to land for a burger then don’t. There are plenty of other, nicer, burger locations that are cheaper and desperately need the custom. If you have a need to go to Brighton and have access to an economical private plane then flying is probably still the cheapest (including your time) way to get there given the cost of trains and time taken to drive.
Peter’s description of the other forum being a “burger run chat site” is brilliant and true. Perhaps a boycott should be arranged???
Gloucester which never gets a bad word said about it.
This is IMHO related directly to the airport manager’s high profile on that forum 
There is also a “chimpanzee society” element in this. For many years it was “the right UK forum thing” to slag off Shoreham. The airport did have its fair share of problems, following local govt ownership which was abruptly terminated when the council discovered they had been led up a garden path for many years by the then “management” to spend a load of money on flights of fancy, and they sold the airport to the first bunch of shysters that came along. But these problems mostly did not affect visitors – except for a stupid mandatory handling thing over 2.5T or so which killed off the piston twin business for years (again the result of the airport having been spun a good yarn by somebody and it took them ages to realise it). But Biggin Hill never got the same slagging off despite having the same prices as Shoreham… my guess is that the forum slaggers-off just never got around to discovering it! Also the most effective time to kick a man is when he is down and Bembridge has suffered badly from the move-out of Britten-Norman who used to run the airport.
I must use fewer idioms because it takes ages to live-link them all
Let’s compare that with Gloucester
Gloucester gets a lot of high-end income from bizjets and some AOC traffic – see esp. post #21 here. Same I believe with Blackpool (never been there).
Peter wrote:
This is IMHO related directly to the airport manager’s high profile on that forum
And in no small measure to the fact that he is extremely pro-active in all aspects of the field and the welcoming attitude shown by all the staff. Something I feel Shoreham lacks is decent PR – and a decent restaurant (based on my last experience)
I think most airports lack decent PR.
Some do it very well e.g. Portoroz are at all the shows. They have just thanked me for mentioning them favourably in some trip writeup…
I guess the problem is the time it takes to be “everywhere” – every forum, facebook, etc.
Food is an emotive topic I (mostly plant based) cannot eat anything at most airport restaurants especially in the UK… maybe soup. But the one at Shoreham is packed-out. So they clearly are pitching the menu correctly.
Back to Bembridge: nobody would (should) fly just to the airport and then turn around and fly back. Same IMHO with Shoreham or most other places. So why the whinging about the landing fee which is barely significant against the fuel, a taxi, food, and whatever else?
I chose the topic title intentionally. Do other countries have this problem?
Peter wrote:
But the one at Shoreham is packed-out. So they clearly are pitching the menu correctly.
So is the one at Southend every time I go – with residents from the local care homes. Doesn’t make it a culinary destination
I might have been a little unfair to the original poster if they were simply trying to make a point about value for money. If this was the case it did come across even so as very whiny. From some limited experiences though I would not say limited just to the British but yes, perhaps in the case of aviation.
Alioth makes some good points about value for money when comparing it to other fields. Comparing Bembridge to Gloucester is like comparing a Tesco Extra in your nearest city to the village post office. They both have their place regardless of the cost of a pint of milk.
I must profess to never having been to Bembridge, let alone the Isle of Wight. So I was rather surprised to see the proximity of Bembridge and Sandown and seeing that they are the only fields on the island. They are sufficiently close that apparently in certain wind conditions traffic can conflict on departure. If value for money and better GA provision in the UK are desirable then I see a case for merging operations of the fields. Bembridge has a hard and soft runway whilst Sandown has the fuel. It would surely be quite feasible to double the service provision whilst lowering costs overall?
I don’t think there is anything wrong with holding an opinion about whether an airport delivers value for money.
The theory is that the cheaper flying becomes (in general, not just airport fees) the more people can do it and the industry eventually grows. The more expensive it becomes, less people do it and the industry eventually shrinks. :-)
The problem I find with the “I will never pay more than £10 to land somewhere” group is that they are inconsistent in their arguments.
On one hand they want zero or close to zero landing fees, on the other hand they do not get involved or do not agree with petitioning public, or other forms of funding into the airport.
Who will eventually pay for it – the corporate/executive jets or the airlines? In addition, they never take action about an airport that charges say £70+ for a landing and overnight parking and £150+ for mandatory ground handling.
One can’t both silently accept costs to spiral out of control on the top end of the spectrum, and then moan or do nothing to support those on the bottom end who merely raises their landing fee by £3. :-s
This £10 group may find themselves with nowhere to land in 10 years time. I honestly hope the lighter end of GA doesn’t become extinct by then.
Peter wrote:
There is also a “chimpanzee society” element in this. For many years it was “the right UK forum thing” to slag off Shoreham.
The more I have operated out of Shoreham, the more I like it. I do feel that a wave of the Gloucestershire Magic Wand wouldn’t go amiss but the facilities are good, the location is cracking and there’s loads of potential. Its nice to see some hangar refurbishment going on and, as Peter says, the restaurant is good although it is a shame it closes before the airport (we quite often return from task in need of a gin 
). It would take very little for Shoreham to be up with the Gloucestershires of the world; perhaps the only problem is the preconceived ideas of the myopic UK GA fraternity.
I might have been a little unfair to the original poster if they were simply trying to make a point about value for money
I don’t think you were unfair S57 because that post was a straight invitation not just for the man’s whole club but for the rest of the forum audience to boycott Bembridge. Otherwise, why post it where it was posted?
IMHO, value for money cannot be judged without knowing the whole financial picture of the airport. For example, this thread which was basically inconclusive because nobody could offer an example. We don’t know what business rates the owner has to pay for example – and business rates are a killer of all small business in the UK.
There is indeed Sandown but it gets water-logged much of the year. Also many people, especially owners, don’t like flying to a grass strip. The plane gets covered in crap, it gets everywhere, inside the landing gear, etc. I know from our fly-ins that a grass location will result in ~ 1/3 cancellations.
This £10 group may find themselves with nowhere to land in 10 years time.
Exactly.
with residents from the local care homes. Doesn’t make it a culinary destination
Food is an emotional issue One well-worn thread is here. For each person who likes a nice fish or a salad, there will – in the UK especially – be a few more who want this
I guess this is one area where the NPPL with the medical self declaration comes in handy, a few years later…
But IMHO it doesn’t matter because one can fly to Le Touquet in a similar time.
Also opening a posh restaurant at an airport might be a tricky business proposition. IMHO, the sort of people who will want to pay £20-30 for a quality meal will also be the ones who don’t “fly to an airport” and just sit there and then fly back. It might work in the French club scene (where truly crap food is not acceptable) but not in the UK.
Blackpool and to a larger extent Gloucester, have additional substantial income from property and businesses located at the airfields.
You must have done a very good deal at Blackpool or parked off the main Apron . I paid £47 for landing and half a day’s parking on two very recent visits.
Blackpool is also PPR and ATC services can be very limited at times.
However, I’m happy to pay larger amounts for good “destinations” (i.e. places with additional facilities and something to “do” rather than just watch the grass grow)
Bembridge landing fees are peanuts in the grand scheme of GA costs.
