Let me briefly share my recent with few Spanish airports, including Canaries. According to my experience, AENA is transparent, prices are published and some airports charge parking even less than defined in price list (which is usually €20/day). Paying AENA invoices online is nice time saver – it’s simple and hassle-free, especially at the airports where AENA offices are not easy to find or access.
- LEJR Jerez – very efficient, GA friendly and everything was according to previously exchanged e-mails.
- GCRR Lanzarote – very efficient, GA friendly and everything was according to previously exchanged e-mails plus parking was much cheaper than listed – it’s €9/day. Iberia, as a handler, delivered what we agreed – transport to the terminal – at agreed price €21.
- GCHI El Hierro – very efficient, GA friendly and everything was according to previously exchanged e-mails.
- GCGM La Gomera – very efficient, GA friendly and everything was according to previously exchanged e-mails.
- GCLA La Palma – not so GA friendly, no attaching points of weights for tying the aircraft plus mandatory handling. In addition, Iberia, as a handler, charged me €70 for man-power – their assistance because I rescheduled my departure and they had to engage guy for overtime because of me (that was the explanation). However, I rescheduled my departure 48 hours before ETD which is more than required in AIP. In addition, their guy was not at the information desk when I arrived and the airport nor at GA entrance, so I crossed terminal building three times, calling Iberia in the meantime before managing to meet him. In the end the guy was walking with me to AENA office making me company but his added value was zero and that was exactly the value that Iberia delivered for this €70.
- GCFV Fuerteventura – pretty remote GA apron, handling is not mandatory but if you have a lot of luggage maybe you should consider engage one for transfer to GA terminal – on arrival i missed it and popped up to main terminal surprising security and police. Parking is cheaper than expected – it’s €9/day.
- LEZL Sevilla – the airport is OK, I can’t say it’s GA friendly – it’s not clear if handling is mandatory or not – I got different information from different sources. However, I decided to engage Aviapartner to avoid potential problems and specified that I require only apron to terminal transfer which they confirmed. On arrival they showed up with 30 minutes of delay (35 degrees on Sevilla’s sunny apron). In addition the refueling bowser didn’t show up either regardless precise ETA sent the day before. I asked the other refueling company guy, who was there with his bowser, to deliver the fuel but he refused because I had agreement with other company, regardless the fact that I didn’t care who would deliver the fuel and that I would pay him anyhow. Then I asked Aviapartner guy to call refueling company but he refused with explanation that this wasn’t his job and that I didn’t require that service. After several calls I finally managed to get refueling company and get the fuel. After that I called Aviapartner again and they drove us to the GA terminal. On departure they presented me an invoice containing €100 charge for man-power for their assistance. I asked them to call the manager and I complained to him while he replied that they coordinated fuel delivery for me and charged them accordingly. After 15 minutes of quarrelling and calling him lier, I realized that I’m only delaying my departure – I paid and left.
Generally, on departure the security is always surprised if you don’t use handlers because nobody informs them. My main sentence on recent trip was “never underestimate slowness of bureaucracy” – because it usually took us between an hour and an hour and a half between arriving to the airport and starting up. On other European airports I spend between 15 and 30 minutes from arriving to the airport to arriving to the aircraft.
Refueling companies are always surprised, regardless getting e-mail with precise time of your arrival (Jerez is exception). I can’t imagine how this works in busy times because these days the airports are practically deserted and there’s no queue of aircrafts to be refueled.
Handlers are the story for itself – it anything destroys GA in Spain, it will be the handlers. They obviously can’t stand the fact that a single pilot (or crew of two) doesn’t need their services beyond apron transport if this is mandated by the airport and not even that if you can walk from the apron to the terminal. In my experience they will use any opportunity to charge non-required, non-existing and non-delivered service just because they can and arguing about the invoice can only delay your departure.
From the above it’s pretty obvious which airports should be avoided until something changes and which definitely can be used as nice GA spots. Unfortunately, throughout Europe it seems that there are more and more unfriendly airports than the opposite examples. Italy and Greece are clear examples and I would be very sorry if Spain follows their case.
Thank you a lot for writing this up. It confirms my experience: with some of the airline airports, you might get lucky, but more likely, it will be messy and/or expensive. Same as in Italy.
So, again, if one wants to avoid unpleasant places, one has to study pireps* and and then choose one‘s destination as a function of how acceptable the airport experience is. Which is a shame to some degree.
*Obviously, this doesn‘t always work because there is also randomness, i.e. experiences with one place also vary.
Thanks for your post above Emir, good info.
LEAM Almeria… my last visit there dates 2 years ago, prior jumping across the Mediteeranean to Mellila. Sevilla called me on my cell during my ground stop in Montpellier to warn me of the mandatory handling fee of €100. En route Spanish ATC repeated that handling was mandatory there. Gotta admit I got excellent service for a quick turnaround, gassing up, flight plan acceptance, visit to the facilities, all done in just about 30‘ ground time.
Paid about €135 including landing fee for my <1T craft.
And yes, GEML Mellila is an interesting destination 
LEZL has always been a nightmare, even 20 years ago with an EC-registered airplane, long before the whole handling mess reared its ugly head! Avoid at almost all cost. There’s really no need to stop there, unless you want to go to Seville and don’t have anyone to pick you up from LEJU (which has its own complications). LEJR is the much better option in that part of Spain and I would prob90 even use it if I wanted to go to Seville.
What happens if you actually pay for non-mandatory service?
Are you going to get a quick turnaround?
Or is it going to be the same 30min wait then 1hr for refuel then 30 min before you can exit, but you pay not 20EUR but 320EUR?
Can you actually get fast service in Seville?
arj1 wrote:
Can you actually get fast service in Seville?
Having lived and flown in the area for many years, the answer is – NO.
DeeCee57 wrote:
LEAM Almeria… my last visit there dates 2 years ago, prior jumping across the Mediteeranean to Mellila. Sevilla called me on my cell during my ground stop in Montpellier to warn me of the mandatory handling fee of €100. En route Spanish ATC repeated that handling was mandatory there. Gotta admit I got excellent service for a quick turnaround, gassing up, flight plan acceptance, visit to the facilities, all done in just about 30‘ ground time.
The last time I asked it was the case, you need handling on France & Spain from/to Mellila, the flight require customs on both ways
I found Almeria/Jerez to be pretty efficient for flights from/to Morocco, both 30min turnarounds with sub-50E bill
Fuel is always nightmare and expensive but it’s no longer an issue for me now as I got 100USG long range tanks to skip fuel in Spain
I still can’t fly straight from France without landing with family, we have to get out of the aircraft after 2h of flying 
172driver wrote:
arj1 wrote: Can you actually get fast service in Seville?Having lived and flown in the area for many years, the answer is – NO.
When was that?
172driver wrote:
LEJU (which has its own complications)
Haven’t been there but looks like a decent field to me as an avid ‘AENA-avoider’. What complications?
Haven’t been there but looks like a decent field to me as an avid ‘AENA-avoider’. What complications?
We’ve been to LEJU a couple of years ago and it was fine. The only problem we had was the location: it’s really in the middle of nowhere. One of the guys took us to the next village where we hopped on a bus to Seville, it took ages.
