I am afraid there is little to investigate. Of course, based aircraft (or maybe even semi-based aircraft) are a totally different story. As everywhere. But in the EuoGA context, of course, we are mostly talking about the fees that a one-off (or very occasioanal) visiting aircraft has to pay.
A different story is whether AOPA or similar might be able to negotiate these fees back to the level of pre-July 2019. In the past, in other cases, this has usually not been the case. The local handling companies usually argue with the tightened security rules which obligate them follow every step of the visiting pilot and his passengers. (This however was the case also in the past, when the handling fee was much lower). In other cases, they argue with the significant Investment that has been made for a new shining GAT temple (which of course, most SEP pilots don’t give a sh!t about, but well). The problem is often aggravated by the fact that the airport authority is quite happy with less VFR / SEP type visitors, so they are fine with the increased handling fees. In Tallinn however, that argument also doesn’t really make much sense, because even with the previous 100€ total of fees, the number of light GA aircraft visiting was minimal, too. Tallinn, whilst a beautiful destination, is just geograhically too remote to attract more light GA visitors.
Could the increased fees have anthing to do with the expected closure of Malmi in the end of this year? It starts looking pretty dim for GA in the very northeast of Europe…
As reported in SD a couple of times now, it looks like the fees for a visit to EETN have again been multiplied.
Previously around 220€ total for an SEP, it now about 600 Euros!
What an audacity. And what a pity, for what is one of the most beautiful cities in northeastern Europe. No alternative airport in the area.
It seems the handling fee alone comes with 510€ ! That sounds like a big rip-off, like in ex-USSR style… Can AOPA not take some action against such outragous fees? Do members get a discount?
There is no AOPA in Europe. 1 or 2 countries have something which operates nationally. Only the US has a good one.
Russia was never cheap for foreigners. They rip everybody off; that and stealing is a national hobby. A round the world helicopter pilot I know spent $60k just flying an MD500 along the length of Russia, ~15 years ago.
What does Russia have to do with it??
Besides that; it‘s correct that the call for „AOPA“ in these small countries without any signifiant own light GA scene does not help much.
We requested a quote two weeks ago and all in it was closer to 700€. We decided to skip EETN and do Tallinn from Pärnu, EEPU instead. You need a Bolt car first to get into town and then it’s 1:50 on the bus, so it’s not very convenient. OTOH buses are frequent and well organized, you can book online. Moreover, there are lockers at the bus station to leave your luggage. A stroll in the pedestrian area of Pärnu and lunch in one of the sidewalk cafés was really nice.
With that being the situation, I can hardly think of a city in Eruope that more desparately needs a small GA airfield to be created. Max 20km from the city (Rapla is to far away already).
I am almost sure that some people (from the small but existing local light GA scene in Tallinn) are working on it, but sometimes it can be difficult.
The issue that sometimes stops this from happening is that based GA does normally not pay these handling fees; they only play landing fees and local hangar / tie down rates and if they are reasonable, they have no reason to flee (Luxembourg is, or at least used to be an example). However, with that attitude of the airport, all the security, etc., I can’t immagine it being a pleasure having an SEP based there…
