Another storm puts a stop to flying this weekend. So once more a club house chat.
A group from our sister club are planning to take part in a Rallye to Egypt later in the year in the club’s DA40.
As always conversation turned to possible problems and handling and landing fees.
One of the topics was a young pilot doing a European tour in a DR400 France – Germany – Switzerland -Italy – France, as published in Info Pilote. Having refuelled at Lugano LSZA at 3.40€ a litre they flew on to Venise Lido LIPV where they arrived at 19h02 to be welcomed by the fire crew car with flashing lights. They were 2 minutes late and were fined 615€ to be added to the landing fee of 80€. Oooh that hurts.🤒
2mins late and a 600Euro fine does seem a bit steep…
The 80 Euro landing fee is also interesting… for how long?
Last visited in 2022 and the fees for a 3 night stay appeared entirely random. Pretty sure some of the charges were made up. But at the end of the day it was one hell of a cool experience for around 35 or 40Euro/night IIRC…
I don’t know how long but it must have been at least overnight and the following morning as they quote taking a boat taxi and 2 hotel rooms plus 30min gondola ride at 80 euros.
When I was in Venice last year a young man was complaining about a handling fee. They left the luggage at the airport to fetch it in the evening and it cost medium three digits handling. He was totally unaware about the cost and totally upset. Airport manager was calm but firm. The young man said he won’t pay, and the other said he’s free to go but he would have to call the police in that case.
Other than that I can only advise to look into any money trap at such an airport. Just don’t do it there and you’re fine. Just don’t land late, someone is waiting for this to happen. I paid some two digits for the whole weekend. Totally ok for where that airfield is.
Yes the French pilot was at fault. It just seemed worthy of a warning that a 615€ fine was imposed for being 2min late.
But to be fair I am assuming there were a number of people waiting for him on overtime. Also he had IIUC flown in from Switzerland. So was the overtime payment for the fire crew that met him or was it for border force staff or shared between them?
Agreed, warnings about such practices are extremely relevant. Looking back after the fact I’m pretty sure that one if the “dodgy” charges on my bill at Lido was because I was asked politely by the guy at reception if I wanted him to call me a taxi…
I find the airport charges at LIPV exceptionally well documented on their webpage, they even have a cost simulator, including extra services like luggage transport and additional fire fighter service. Also the 600 EUR charge is documented on the first page of the price catalog.
That’s as may be… but the bill I had bore no resemblance to it…Remember – we are talking about a grass strip here, where the parking area had weeds well over a foot high, and I lugged my own bags about…there was definitely no handling involved except for paying the bill, and looked at like that, I wouldn’t say its cheap.
What Lido has, is a superb location with an uber-cool art deco building and bar/restaurant, where you can hop on a water taxi outside the door and feel like James bond for the weekend…That I’m not knocking at 35-40Euro per night…
I find the airport charges at LIPV exceptionally well documented on their webpage
What Lido has, is a superb location with an uber-cool art deco building and bar/restaurant
+1
I for one wouldn’t dare to land after an airport closes. Why ask for trouble? There is a number of aviosuperfici in the vicinity of LIPV. I would prefer to divert there and settle the matter with the field owner.
