As I’m not far from Ibiza I’d be very interested in this change so I sent them an email yesterday morning with a handling request for later this week. So far, no reply.
Did you google translate into Spanish also?
Spanish airports (the airport itself; not a handler) mostly don’t reply to any communications, but (and this is true all over Europe) a translation seems to help.
It may be seasonal? In the high season getting parking at LEIB is not easy.
Sure, but that applies to all almost all commercical airports on the Med in summer.
As for the TOTAL card recommended further up, I recently tried to get one for JET A1 (which the thread starter needs), and Total told me they do not issue them to private operators. Only 100LL.
Please see page 74 in the attached document here:
http://www.aena.es/csee/ccurl/245/251/Aena-price-guide-March-2020.pdf local copy
These are maximum prices allowed by AENA. When “Handling is mandatory” appears in an airport in the AIP, the reason behind it is because AENA doesn’t want people wandering around the ramp you they force you to hire a handler. The absolutely minimum service required is the escort or transport to terminal service. That is around 20€ round trip.
What actually happens is that small business aviation handlers are not interested in offering this service, that’s why usually Iberia or Ground Force do it. You can expect no reply or excuses from handlers. Small handlers will also try to add extra fees like: terminal access fee, mercedes van fee, drinks & fruit fee, screening fee, etc… And apart from the minimum service that is regulated, they can charge you what they want.
Data points from two AENA airports in November 2019:
Murcia (LEAM): Iberia charged the minimum service fees as per the fee schedule prescribed by law, with an additional scribble of “Manpower: €250” on the invoice. They have you over a barrel as if you don’t pay, you won’t be taken back to your aircraft to depart.
San Sebastian (LESO): Again Iberia, but they were upfront with fees and we paid what had been agreed. Bit of a to-and-fro regarding police as we departed to UK, but that is not Iberia’s fault.
In both cases we used the wording set out by AOPA Spain to try and avoid the excessive charges. As pointed out above, many agents simply don’t respond to basic handling requests. Others do, but quoting figures inconsistent with the law, and drop comms if you press the matter further.
ATC was a lot better than I was expecting, the scenery stunning, but the ground experience (especially in Murcia) really leaves a sour taste.
speed wrote:
These are maximum prices allowed by AENA. When “Handling is mandatory” appears in an airport in the AIP, the reason behind it is because AENA doesn’t want people wandering around the ramp you they force you to hire a handler. The absolutely minimum service required is the escort or transport to terminal service. That is around 20€ round trip.
How does it work in AENA airport if you just turn up out of the blue and then asked for “minimum service handling”? Would you get away with it and arrange an escort service on the spot? usually tower ATC check your FPL box 18 before you reach circuit or ground ATC asks you for you handler just after runway is vacated
Something easy to try when one does not need fuel or customs and have one day to spare
Quite. Once you are on the ground, the airport is usually keen on getting people off the airside. So, eventually, they would likely send some handling agent to pick up and escort you. And then you could potentially refuse any additional „service“ other than that.
But anyway, it is messy. And could lead to delays, discussions and so on. All the things one doesn‘t want when flying (often on a holiday). So, it‘s all good that handling agents are forced by the law to provide escort-only for 20 Euros. But in practice, it calls for trouble when someone is forced to do something which he does not want to to (at least not at that price). It costs more than 20€ to produce an invoice alone!
My takeaway is that not a lot has changed. With few exceptions, Spanish AENA airports are a PITA and / or are usually expensive.
with an additional scribble of “Manpower: €250” on the invoice. They have you over a barrel as if you don’t pay, you won’t be taken back to your aircraft to depart.
What a bunch of crooks.
This isn’t expensive. This is criminal – entrapment of the customer.
But they could not care less. In Spain, airports exist for local employment, for consuming EU grants (with a % to the local officials), not for serving air traffic.
The only way to fly to any of the “airline sized” ones is to get a Spanish speaker to pre-agree every detail. This was done for our fly-ins to Burgos and Menorca, and both took quite a bit of work.
