Crazy, so many different handling agents for so little work… no wonder the prices are so high…
Selling hot air for premium prices; a business model made in heaven !
I used a “handling” agent at Malaga, LEMG, over Christmas. Paid well over Euro 100. It took them an hour to get the Avgas truck to my plane. And then on departure they completely messed up the coordination with the tower, so that I couldn’t get clearance to taxi for 20 minutes after start up. Complete shambles.
Spain so often is a shambles, however. So many stories… here’s just some I remember straight off
Then you get some amazingly well organised places like 100ALAS handling at Barcelona Sabadell, €80 the lot including a taxi to town; sadly that company has gone bust. San Sebastian was also smooth. However, there is little “GA” there; most of the GA community (of say 15 years ago) has collapsed and most of those flying have gone to ultralights and they, as everywhere, go nowhere near these airports. So most GA encountered by these airports is foreign visitors, who are easy to extract money from.
Italy is not that much different, however. Enough stories to fill a book. In the end visiting pilots need to make a decision whether the trip is worth doing. Many of us have done Greece in often more complicated circumstances than the above, but of course it always is worth it 
I still want to fly to Spain every year, near the end when it is cooler.
At Ampuriabrava, you can get a car deliver at the airfield with this company: https://www.ampuriacar.com/
Did it a few years ago really useful
boscomantico wrote:
They also tend to take a long time to produce invoices and so on.
That’s so true; it drives me nuts. The Aerops app which is spreading in Germany is fantastic, but I see zero chance it will be adopted in Spain or Italy. Spaniards LOVE paperwork. It’s the only country where my customers prefer a notary to an electronic signature. I always try to catch the look of despair when I tell a clerk I do not need his receipt / duplicata.
I have been outright solicited for a bribe twice in my years in Europe. In both cases in airports.
First time was at Cannes, where the refueler explained that he had some “extra” avgas left over as they “had made a mistake with their calculations at the fuel terminal, so if I was prepared to just go in the terminal and take out a bunch of cash from the ATM he would fill my tanks at a big discount for cash and with no paperwork”.
In the second case it was at Mykonos. I kept calling and being told there would be no space available for parking overnight, but I was very persistent. Eventually the ops manager told me that if I dealt with x, not an airport employee, and paid him a special Euro 300 “extra handling fee” this guy might be able to make space available on the day. Clearly the fee was going to split later between the two of them.
I told the guy in Cannes to take a hike, as he was clearly engaged in outright criminality, but paid the E300 to the guy in Mykonos as I figured this was a cultural norm. I learned later that Mykonos airport hold back all available parking space until the last minute, as they get lots of late booked arrivals by private jet by middle eastern princes and work the scam hard in that case.
As promised, quick after action report on my trip to Girona last weekend.
Friday – day before departure
Friday was a lot of tense. Aircraft (DR500) was stuck in mechanic for a broken hose, but another pilot from my club was able to get it back in the late afternoon.
Around noon, Barcelona officials announced a “pre-confinement” asking for individuals to stay home, and discouraging tourists from coming in Barcelona.
My trip was not in Barcelona City but in Platja d’aro, a touristic seaside town about 20kms north, which was not concerned by the restriction. So we decided with my wife to maintain our trip.
Saturday
At 0815, I arrived at my aero-club. The friend who brought the aircraft back the day before filled the tanks to the maximum, so I have 270 liters of AVGAS at my disposal. More than 7 hours of fuel; enough to make the round trip with plenty of left over fuel for any contingencies.
The plane was even parked in the front row in our hangar. Very appreciable from my friend. A little gift for him from our trip was now mandatory.
Weather decision is pretty simple.
Block time is 0850, exact time of the filled flightplan.
Planned route is almost direct, near the the Pic du Midi du Bigorre, with a little deviation when entering Spain to be able to clear the terrain.
Fact is Barcelona CTR starts at 8000 AMSL, where there is a lot of terrain above this altitude, and radio reception is not guarantee. If you don’t go south quickly, you will probably not be able to reach Barcelona, and be forced to descend in the valleys (or fly uncleared in a D class area).
The DR500 is a mid level cruiser, and his performances are not very good above 8000 AMSL. So the climb to 10.500 feet is a looooong way to go.
Some clouds make their appearance approaching the coast, forcing to little deviations to maintain VMC during our descent.
Girona controller is real sympathic, and I am quickly cleared to land, with a full illuminated runway.
After clearing the runway, the traditional spanish follow-me guides me to the stand.
A few others GA are there (one piper, one mooney, and two Cirrus).
The handler (General Aviation Services) arrives at the same time I shut the engine down.
She loads our bags in the trunk of the Mercedes V-Class, provides us chocks (uncompatible with the fairings of our DR500, but I got some of my own), and after a false depart (we forgot to tie down the aircraft), here we are in the empty terminal of Costa Brava Girona Airport.
A little walk to the rental car parking, and we quickly are on the Costa Brava highways.
Beautiful weekend under the Mediterranean sunshine. A lot of tourists on the beach, in the streets (all masked) and a lot of car returning back to Barcelona on the highway on Sunday evening.
A little stress all weekend long when the French Government announces being thinking of closing again Spanish border…
On Monday, we arrived at the airport around 13h15; left the car at the Sixt parking (where the employee offered to drop us at the terminal. Close by but with the shopping packets on our arms, very appreciable).
No opened restaurant in the still empty terminal (only one commercial flight around 14h00, then nothing till 21h00) so we crossed the street to a nearby restaurant to buy two sandwiches for our flight.
Handling agent was waiting for us and kept our bags during the time needed to go buy our sandwiches.
Invoice was conform to the quotation. 120 € for the handling, and about 80 € of fees.
The agent accompanied us through the crew inspection, and to the aircraft (which was still there :) )
On the apron, the sole commercial flight of the afternoon.
The agent waited till we were ready for departure, and we taxied.
Departure was a little messy.
First, I was cleared to taxi to E3 for runway 20. E3 is about 3/4 down the runway on this QFU, so I asked confirmation, which I was given.
Arriving at the holding point, controller asked me for a 180 and taxi to E1 (threshold of 20), « my mistake » she apologized.
At the E1 holding point, my oil pressure was in the low yellow area, so I returned back to the apron to phone the mechanic shop.
I was surprised to saw the handling agent coming back with his vehicle near our aircraft, waiting for our decision.
After a quick reassuring phone call to the mechanic, and without shutting down the engine, we taxied back to the apron, waiving and thanking our handling agent.
Weather was expected to be orageous on the Pyrenees, so I elected to fly along the spanish coast line, till Perpignan, and back to Biarritz on the french side of the Pyrenees.
After Perpignan, I stood a little bit north of the planned route to stay away from the foothills and their turbulences.
Flight was pretty smooth. A little bit of turbulences at 3.000 feet in France, which disappeared once we climbed to 6000.
The CB’s were effectively present on ADL and in sight.
We arrived in Biarritz and taxied to the fuel station, passing alongside the convoy of a Minister which was there for the funerals of a local bus driver who was murdered by a low-life refusing to wear a protective mask.
A great weekend despite the Covid-19 situation.
1h58 of flight on the inbound flight.
2h28 of flight on the return flight.
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I can have a go at doing them later today.
EDIT: I see you have done it
Nice trip in a nice part of Europe
I wonder how much Biaritz costs nowadays. I last went there when it was €10.
