I don’t know if you remember Peter, but when we met in 2019 in the LFRG ops room, they had a whiteboard with all the expected handled traffic for the day, with registration, number of pax, DEP/DEST, time of ARR/DEP etc…
I bet every airport works this way, and just loves to have every morning the full planning for the day, set parking spots accordingly, communicate with customs etc…
Hence your emails with Montpellier. they still had a spot so they accepted you “as a favor”.
Soon you will have to book online a 2-minute slot at your local bakery to buy your bread 
Some good replies here. Who’s the CEO for Lille Airport? I’ll send him a letter because to increase fee’s for <2T doesn’t exactly fund anything, it just reduces them to zero. It’s a 165% increase in fees for no reason.
Maybe it’s all to do with this, like Amsterdam with the leftist Dutch Government. https://www.lille.aeroport.fr/corporate/environment/our-commitments/
Maybe it’s all to do with this, like Amsterdam with the leftist Dutch Government.
Not sure if this is politics but Lille Mayor is the same for last 20 years and will be the same in the next 20 years to be Martine Aubry while being leftist had good relashionships with aeroclubs, maybe something to do with people doing défilés and people sports fédérations, I would say the mayor is more like USSR Politics than Green Politics? lovely person by the way (she was around in few airshows) many pilots would vote for her if it was for aviation…
Ibra wrote:
Martine Aubry while being leftist had good relashionships with aeroclubs
That is the tragedy where “we” as a group do our own undoing IMHO. Aeroclubs carve out their own “based club” exceptions, and have no global vision or global “light GA” solidarity, so they don’t “fight” with the local contacts that they have to keep the value of GA as a way to travel, rather than just doing local flights with the aeroclub planes.
@lionel whilst I agree with you about carving out club exceptions, France is quite a large country with many interesting places to visit and many of us regularly do more than just local flights.
I also agree that we don’t necessarily think globally beyond the Dom Toms. However, Schengen and its freedoms are taken seriously and the FFA would be at the forefront of any discussion on limiting their freedoms for French club pilots.🙂
It’s a shame about the barriers to flying to and from the UK but if the EU cannot persuade the UK to join Schengen and could not persuade them to stay in the EU there is very little the FFA can do about it. Especially as Jujupilote pointed out, with current budgetry restrictions.
We will have to wait a see whether, in time, that will change for the better. But of course it might also get worse.
Indeed and I fully agree, the “sports fédération flying” view is not helpful when it comes to flying but maybe what works against Left & Green Politics? mandatory handling on “way of travel flying” is part of Right & Liberal Politics?
In some places like Nantes you can have the best of the two worlds, “argent et le beur”, free handling by Nantes aeroclub on light GA 
it will be good if Lille ACB can arrange or lobby for something? it works both ways keeping the gate open…
pilotrobbie wrote:
like Amsterdam with the leftist Dutch Government.
The Dutch government is not leftist – it is a coalition with the major participants being center or right of center and has been so for years. Majority party, the VVD are liberal conservatives, partner D66 are liberal democrats and the CDA ( Christian Democrats ) and the Christian Union are not left wingers.
lionel wrote:
That is the tragedy where “we” as a group do our own undoing IMHO.
The tragedy is rather that some people take it for granted that if you are a leftist, then you are opposed to aeroclubs or GA in general.
It is rather true though, for all the standard reasons.
So the Director of the Airport is – Marc-André GENNART
https://www.linkedin.com/in/marc-andr%C3%A9-gennart-8407136/?originalSubdomain=be
Has he got an email at Lille? Or shall I just send to the Airport + email to [email protected]?
What shall consist of this letter?
