For one week with 1 crew and 1 passenger I calculated a price around 450 EUR with tax included.
We will go to Rijeka instead where we pay around 100 EUR for the same and take a rental car to Zadar.
I asked Croatian CAA for their standpoint on legality of this charges due to the fact that there’s no NOTAM or AIP entry defining mandatory usage of GAT.
Well, if we have to pay for service at the VIP terminal / handler, maybe use it?
Just go into their posh passenger lounge in shorts and yellow vest; with the wife and the kids who you feed sweets just before entering and which you encourage to make maximum noise while you raid the fridge for soft drinks and snaffle all the canapes.
Make sure you all wear polyester clothing so you smell as one does after two hours in a light aircraft in the summer sun – you will have gotten used to it so won’t even notice – and then take a shower afterwards. Leave an absolute mess.
Steal some cutlery, and talk loudly at the top of your voice.
Before you leave, check exactly what services are included in handling and make sure you use every single one…
At sone point they will hopefully decide they don’t really want to have you in their facilities and offer a no-service package.
Cobalt wrote:
Leave an absolute mess. Steal some cutlery, and talk loudly at the top of your voice.
Good advices 
but I don’t know if there’s any cutlery at LDZD and even if they have showers at all.
On the serious note, I got reply from CAA at they are absolutely puzzled with this and have no idea on what grounds airport pushes this and charge these outrageous fees. They recommended me to contact airport committee (which is involved in pricing policy and includes airline representatives) while they’ll investigate the case.
Hi Emir, I haven’t visited Croatia yet, but I’m working on it happening this year.
I just wanted to say how great it is that you are able to pursue these issues on behalf of us all.
Emir wrote:
On the serious note, I got reply from CAA at they are absolutely puzzled with this and have no idea on what grounds airport pushes this and charge these outrageous fees. They recommended me to contact airport committee (which is involved in pricing policy and includes airline representatives) while they’ll investigate the case.Thanks Emir for your efforts, much appreciated! Zadar is still on my “to visit” list, but the current high fee situation makes me (and many others) prevent it. Lošinj was already a bit too expensive in my opinion just 2,5 weeks ago, but that bill (€188 incl. shuttle to Veli Lošinj and 3 night parking) was nothing compared to the reported fees for Zadar.
Thanks everyone for support and special thanks to all who provided their invoices and correspondence with LDZD regarding GA terminal usage. I’ve forwarded screenshots of received correspondence (with hidden identity of involved parties) both to CAA and Airport users committee. One case was really at the edge of legality – GA terminal insisted on charging GAT usage to pilot who was supposed to just land, stay for some time at the apron and depart without leaving the apron. According to EU legislation, trying to charge non-asked and non-delivered service is against the law.
CAA is starting the investigation; I’ll post update here if I get something. No promises here because actually they can’t regulate handling fees but they will investigate the cases, especially because there’s no NOTAM and no AIP entry on mandatory GAT usage. Also, I’ll report once I get Committee reply.
Hello Emir, any news from CAA with thies GA terminal fees?
Zadar is busy at Saturdays (tomorrow) they want to arrive before 9:30 or after 15:00 :-(
Hello Emir, any news from CAA with thies GA terminal fees?
Unfortunately no. My complaints simply disappeared in big deep hole called vacation season. I’ll ping everybody involved to see if there’s any progress.
Emir wrote:
tually they can’t regulate handling fees
Wasn’t there some rule/regulation that said handling can be declined / cannot be mandatory / has to be reasonable? Something around Spain and “minimum-service” handling seems to ring a bell, but I cannot recall any specifics.
