And why should that be the case for aerodromes, but not for canals, to name just those? Who uses canals? A small minority of society: a handful of commercial shipping and a bit of recreation in the weekend. Do canoers have to pay when they go training?
I don’t think there are any general cases here. Someone will have to pay for services, somehow. In the end, how that is done is more of a random thing unless the service is owned and run 100% privately.
That’s no reason that the users of a particular (public) good or service, cannot be asked to pay a fee for using the good or service, even if the tax payers in general initially funded the public good or service.
I agree on that; but don’t forget that one is already paying for the usage of the infrastructure (by landing fees), and the whole point is that you’re mandated to use additional services which you don’t need. It must be legal but I find it questionable, especially on public airports.
On some airports the mandatory handling comes with a VIP lounge. Expensive crap that no GA pilot will ever need.
Handling is an old historical thing. There is no way the pilots or crew of a passenger jet was/is going to mess around organising fuel and pumping out the toilet, etc. So handling as a basic principle in airport operation got established very early on in commercial aviation.
And with a higher end bizjet being charged out to a paying client at something like 5000 quid an hour, the same applies. The client expects very nice coffee and croissants and other stuff, not this (from a well known UK airfield)
It is only light GA that doesn’t want and doesn’t need handling, and keeps finding ingenious ways to avoid it 
So an airport has to make a decision whether to force everybody to go through the handler (and lose a lot of GA business) or provide a separate path for GA and p1ss off the handler because quite a lot of bizjet customers (and most turboprop customers – the PC12 crowd being a notable exception; they often request handling) don’t actually want to waste money on handling either.
The airport certainly doesn’t want to p1ss off the handler because the handler
)There is nothing like tradition! The last one above goes on more than you think, and a lot closer to home than Africa… Anywhere where there is “no parking unless you go via handling” is a prime candidate for some funny stuff going on.
BTW in the UK most airports are on private land, so they are under no public service obligation. I think the public service aspect is mainly from the USA where any airport in receipt of the FAA subsidy must accept traffic (pretty obviously).
There have been rumours that the EU makes mandatory handling illegal unless there are 2 or more handlers, but that doesn’t mean a thing because they just set their prices the same. Gatwick? 500 quid or so from both Signature and Harrods.
Ahhh, it’s been a long time since I’ve flown in to Shoreham for breaky !
Wellesbourne actually
But it is typical UK airfield “food”…
I am sure they have lost hundreds of “private pilot” customers over the last 12 months or so. The problem is: I guess they don’t care
+1
They certainly have lost me, because they didn’t care at all.
Just got their ‘Come Back for 2015’- email.
Here is my take on handling for my plane a C210. For 99% of my flying career it was not necessary and therefore a rip off. The 1% of the time when I felt it was not, involved complicated govt Bureaucracy and obtaining wx with a system I was not familiar with. For example Caymans to Panama, Greenland to Iceland. By the way Rocket Route was superb with their personalized help then and now. I actually got a human who spoke English, was understandable, experienced, and didnt charge by the minute. They coordinated and got me Fuel prices, and landing fees, opening times, etc. Basically they did the handling when I ran into problems enroute from Canada to Budapest. Which is totally different than the follow me truck to the ATM machine that I have experienced in Central America and on this side of the globe.
In the US we usually ride on the coat tails of Biz jets at larger FBOs. They make very little money on a 172 but what the hell the staff is there why not allow the piston crowd in? Its good will and some more business.
Im new in the Europe so Im still learning. But what is needed here is something like a good active pilot group like AOPA, CPA, which we have in the states. Perhaps this organization will fill that roll.
Heres what Ive learned. I go to the airports section in RR look at the AIP call the airport management ask if a Handler is required and their tel number. Some places like Corfu have 4 or 5 handlers ask for prices. Swissport by the way only charges 25EU with an AOPA card. The rest were 100Eu or more which also applies to SwissPort if you dont have an AOPA card. After selecting the handler, I give them the required info for an IFR slot. Flight plan thru RR and hopefully get there on time.
Hope this helps.
Anybody knows Ataturk LTBA (Istanbul?)
In the AIP I don’t find the handling is mandatory, but at such big airport, it seems very strange if it isn’t (for a vfr flight with a light acft)
I contacted already a few handling agents (with prices between 500 – 900€)… but if it isn’t mandatory, it would be nicer.. I mailed also the airport itself a few weeks ago, but I haven’t received any answer yet on the question if it is mandatory
I have only been to LTBH myself (in 2009) but have this email from 2009 which, together with my poor memory, suggests LTFJ is worth a closer look.
A few weeks ago, I had already e-mail contact with the flying club at LTFJ (maybe interesting for other people too):
Unfortunately the two airports are very very busy with commercial traffic , and they are not very general aviation frirendly. Our club is located in Sabiha Gokcen Airport ( we plan to move to Bursa in the near future) As far as I know , you cannot arrive at Ataturk via VFR flight plan.
We can handle your parking and procedures for you if you arrive at Sabiha however.
The parking fee for general aviation aircraft is 60 eur per day.
The transfer to (when you arrive) and from (when you depart) the CIP gate ( this is the only place you can enter the airport if you do not have ana APron card) is 150 usd each.
You can buy avgas from us , and it is 4.00 eur per liter.
You find these prices are rather steep but most of these fees are paid by our club to Sabiha gokcen administration, and their prices are really hight for general aviation operators.
Alternatively you can land at Corlu LTBU or Yenisehir bursa LTBR; which have customs facilities , but we do not have any further info on their fees and procedures.
So, for 4 days Istanbul, it would be almost the same amount as in Ataturk (handling costs more but airport fees are much cheaper). On a few internet sites I find handling is mandatory in Istanbul, but nothing in the AIP.
Corlu is also an option, but it is 1.5h drive from Istanbul with a rental car. LTBR is not an option, it takes too long to get in Istanbul, as well as LTBH or LTBJ
