I had a very interesting talk with the Bulgarian CAA at the Aero. They are working VERY hard to get immigration and customs to the GA fields Lesnovo and Primorsko, amongst other things. The chief of the airspace design there is an active VFR pilot and ATCO, so he knows very well what he is doing. It takes a bit of time but it looks very encouraging, also the fact that there are lots of small airports waiting to be developed and reopened, some of which will also get AOE status on request.
I have added a price table of UK’s airports here:
https://www.euroga.org/forums/trips-airports/10637-uk-regional-airports-price-league-table-757kg
In the link below please find the complaint to the Polish anti monopoly body against the fee situation on Polish airports.
It is translated into English, so to make the ideas usable in other countries, if needed by some organizations willing to follow.
Just as a remainder – as European Commission (ECDGMT) pointed that national level anti monopoly authorities are responsible for GA matters we simply continue that direction, probing Poland. Let’s see what the result will be, I will comment when having any news worth sharing.
With that complaint the scope of works contracted with K&K is fulfilled. And after paying for the attached translation the money gathered for the process are also almost spent (around hundred Euro left).
Over a year passed, a natural question appears if it was worth it… Personally I think yes, although my initial expectations regarding the results were some higher.
On positive sides, we as an open forum have managed to start a quite substantial action (money gathering, hiring lawyers, getting them arguments, eventually filling EU and national levels). I think we also have managed to make some groups of people aware that price ban in access to airports for GA will and already has negative consequences in many areas.
Largest negative surprise – I think the lack of some real reaction from the side of European Commission Competition DG… I would expect that such a body should understand the slow but mischievous, multifaceted consequences of airports closing themselves for GA.
But well, the “constant dropping wears away the stone”, simply let’s continue with what we have started, the national anti monopoly probing, national CAA consultancies (the idea of IAOPA) or whatever means that are available to fight these GA exclusion trends.
Link to the Polish authorities anti monopoly claim: https://we.tl/t-fJvfthFX8P
On what basis does the european commission decide that GA is an issue for national authorities when clearly is poses a problem for intra community trade and travel – though I would like to travel from France to the netherlands on business landing at Eindhoven is impossible and landing elsewhere makes it as inconvenient as commercial air travel.
This abdication of responsibility is an issue – if you look what the european commission has done for roaming charges for mobile phones you would think this is a similar argument – the national authorities are not going to do anything because of regulatory capture.
While the EASA is the single authority for everything else related to aviation and have a stated goal of encouraging GA this clearly conflicts with the delegation of responsibility to national authorities for managing airspace and access.
Percentage of voters affected by roaming charges: 80 percent.
Percentage of voters affected by excessive airport charges: 0.01 percent.
On a less cynical note: If an organisation breaks some law, the first stop for recourse would be the local authorities and courts for that organisation. Good to see that some action is happening at that level now.
The EU also has some very large fish to fry right now…
I think this project will have had the result that at least some airports will think twice before doing crazy pricing.
Well, unless they are in a position where they are impregnable, e.g. London Gatwick (a monopoly by Signature, obviously assisted by the airport management itself), or Fraport in Greece (where they can do anything they want, due to Greek debts).
And? Any news on this project?
Not sure of the final outcome.
It’s been very quiet on this subject while the problem gets worse and worse.
Probably another initiative which came to nothing and nobody bothers to tell anyone. Not unexpected.
Cobalt wrote:
Percentage of voters affected by roaming charges: 80 percent.Percentage of voters affected by excessive airport charges: 0.01 percent.
Sums it up nicely.
