New EU Handling EASA opinion 01/2024

IMO it could well make a difference.
Say for instance you are flying from the UK to France. You are therefore forced to use an AoE. In many cases this will mean using an airport which also caters for commercial traffic. Under EU regs in order to move from your aircraft to the exit/terminal this will probably mean you now need safety training and being issued with a card (In France this is a CIME card.) AIUI it doesn’t matter which NAA issues the card as long as you have one. If you do not have a card you and your passengers will have to be escorted between aircraft and terminal. That could well lead to a proliferation of handlers and thus handling fees.
Perhaps I am being pessimistic here, but it is IMHO.

Any additional regulation on GH will give excuse to handlers/airports to charge more and to make handling mandatory.

gallois wrote:

Under EU regs in order to move from your aircraft to the exit/terminal this will probably mean you now need safety training and being issued with a card (In France this is a CIME card.) AIUI it doesn’t matter which NAA issues the card as long as you have one. If you do not have a card you and your passengers will have to be escorted between aircraft and terminal. That could well lead to a proliferation of handlers and thus handling fees.

This is already the case in (eg) Basel, they charge no less than €26,30 per trip by shuttle from the airplane to the terminal or from the terminal to the airplane – means €54,60 for a 250m trip to / from the plane. Noting the prices of taxis, this is nothing other than extortion, especially as even with the CIME card, you still have to pay that fee. Without the CIME, you need to find someone at that airport who understands that non french pilots do NOT have a CIME, that the reason for CIME is to allow unaccompanied access to the airside of the airport and as you’re paying for the shuttle, you won’t be unaccompanied on the way to your plane….. takes a long time… ask me how I know……

It depends on the airport. I’ve been two times in Bergen (ENBR) for example, where you get a long ride in a huge bus from the GA apron to gate 5, and back. Guess what… It’s for free, or at least integrated into the normal Avinor landing fees.

Another example is Dresden (EDDC), where the bus doesn’t cost you an additional penny. And also many airports, where an escort in the follow-me car is free.

A mandatory escort doesn’t mean you have to be charged with crazy fees… but handlers will do of course. As soon as the airport itself doesn’t want to deal with GA folks anymore, they make handling mandatory, and then you pay big time.

Steve6443 wrote:

This is already the case in (eg) Basel, they charge no less than €26,30 per trip by shuttle from the airplane to the terminal or from the terminal to the airplane – means €54,60 for a 250m trip to / from the plane.

When using GAC Basel, you may walk everything by yourself, but that apron is secured from the normal tarmac with an additional fence. It’s also a customs boundary, since “GAC” is defacto Switzerland.

Frans wrote:

When using GAC Basel, you may walk everything by yourself, but that apron is secured from the normal tarmac with an additional fence. It’s also a customs boundary, since “GAC” is defacto Switzerland.

You’re referring to the Swiss side of the airport. I am referring to the French side, where you need to take a shuttle from the apron to the terminal. Then when returning, the orifices there demand a CIME card and if you don’t have one, one of their “solutions” is to get you to fill out a card claiming you are a student, then you announce the flying school you are flying with and the shuttle takes you to your aircraft rather than to the flying school aircraft….

That’s a lot of gold plating at Basel.
There should be no need for a shuttle bus if you have a CIME and no need for a CIME if you use a shuttle bus. (Unless you want them)
Some sort of safety training and a pass is a EU reg that France got hauled over the coals for not adhering to, in the last 2 years IIRC. At airports with a lot of commercial operations we used to just show our pilot’s licence and photo ID.
It was figured that pilots knew how to safely conduct themselves when airside.
The EU obviously think different.
I believe AOPA also do a card and arrange training, but I don’t know whether airside security can read English so it may take some time for them to get used to the AOPA version.

Steve6443 wrote:

You’re referring to the Swiss side of the airport.

True, but it’s in fact no different than other comparable situations around Europe, where a GA apron is separated from the ‘official’ parts of the airport. Especially aeroclubs are often separated, where you also don’t need any security checks. The problem is of course that not each aeroclub likes visitors, or can only host you when someone is on-site on a voluntary basis.

gallois wrote:

That’s a lot of gold plating at Basel.
There should be no need for a shuttle bus if you have a CIME and no need for a CIME if you use a shuttle bus. (Unless you want them)
Some sort of safety training and a pass is a EU reg that France got hauled over the coals for not adhering to, in the last 2 years IIRC. At airports with a lot of commercial operations we used to just show our pilot’s licence and photo ID.
It was figured that pilots knew how to safely conduct themselves when airside.
The EU obviously think different.
I believe AOPA also do a card and arrange training, but I don’t know whether airside security can read English so it may take some time for them to get used to the AOPA version.

I showed my licences (EASA, FAA), Photo ID, AOPA crew card but the idiots in Basel said “without a CIME card you are not going airside.” Even with a CIME card the French side demands you use their shuttle with the incumbent fees – nobody is allowed to walk airside on the french sector of the airport. I had 3 KLM pilots join me in taking the shuttle – also no CIME card in sight, but they were obviously dressed as pilots so I presume if I had worn my Van Heusen pilot’s shirt with gold bars on it, things would be easier……

It took well over half an hour to convince them that I was the owner of the plane with which I’d just arrived to drop off a friend, that I had a flight plan to return, that I was the pilot. The only solution they saw was that I would need to claim to be a student pilot and then they would “allow” me to be taken to the apron, whereupon I could tell the shuttle driver where to go.

Absolutely ridiculous state of affairs…..

@ Steve6443 wrote:- Absolutely ridiculous state of affairs…..
👎👎👎I totally agree..Many of us have been saying that there are going to be stupid problems since this training and safety card scheme was forced on us by the EU. It is unnecessary IMHO.