We recently had the pleasure of visiting Venice (Lido) and Tuscany shortly after the reopening.
It really was something to visit places like Florence or San Gimignano with only a few local tourists around. Tuscany has this unique charm usually spoilt in summer by sheer number of people. Not so this time.
After visiting Venice we flew VFR across Italy and elected to land at Siena LIQS. We found that the situation has improved compared to previous posts!
Airport details in the EuroGA database
Thanks. Good to know they backed down a little bit from their previous fees. But make no mistake, they sure wouldn‘t have done that without Corona.
A slight correction: they don‘t do customs, but that‘s true only in the narrow sense of the term. For cash, they do organize immigration though (nothing more than a previous notification to the local authorities).
boscomantico wrote:
they sure wouldn‘t have done that without Corona.
I am not so sure. This is a GA-only airport. The business model is driven by high-end GA aircraft rather than SEP’s. The former has picked up markedly in the wake of Corona.
Maintaining a large facility with three or four workers, two types of fuel, handling, FFS and AFIS on lowly SEP fees is simply not feasible. In fact even if the SEP movements would triple compared to the previous triple rates, it still would not affect the bottom line: it is not an easy facility to justify business-wise, definitely not based on SEP traffic, but one I would like to see open to SEP’s for the foreseeable future. From the purely business point of view, SEP’s and AVGAS are more of a hassle than a significant contribution .
I had some discussions with the airport management along those lines and they agreed to facilitate SEP use via the referred policy change, not in order to change their bottom line, but in order to gratiously help maintain feasibility of SEP travel in the area, for the benefit of GA: we cannot afford to keep losing airfields to SEP travel.
Airport access is currently the single biggest threat to useful GA travel in Europe. We should thus implement some wider-reaching action in this respect. Any ideas welcome, but that is probably a thread diversion.
I believe this kind of airport policy change deserves our strong support. Siena fly-in, anyone?
From the purely business point of view, SEP’s and AVGAS are more of a hassle than a significant contribution .
Why not solve the „hassle“ by reducing interaction with „sep“ ga pilots to almost zero?
Make a website with clear instructions for ga pilots
(„Self parking“ on ramp near exit/entrance, fuel pump with credit card payment.) Done. Free money.
Our Centurion on the ample tarmac LIQS apron
Walking the mostly vacant streets of Florence
Piazza della signoria at Florence
Florence downtown
Galleria degli Uffici, one of the biggest classic art collections in the world
Sunset at Tuscany
Breakfast at Tuscany’s
Our villa for a couple of days
San Gimignano
Snoopy wrote:
Why not solve the „hassle“ by reducing interaction with „sep“ ga pilots to almost zero?
That is a good point. I guess that does not come without risks to the airport operator and they still want to have some control on what we do on their airport and perhaps some justification for personnel. You cannot avoid some minimal interaction anyway.
If we can achieve very high levels of personnal respect and integrity in the GA community so we can treat every airport at least as well as we would treat our own place, then in theory that should be possible.
I don’t see much risk. These airports aren’t exactly busy with a constant flow of traffic and with self parking and a self service fuel pump could be managed by one or no person and a few cctv cameras to check who hit the lamp post with his wing on the way out.
Many airports in the us with lighting/instrument approaches are without any personnel. The code for the gate is written airside or there is a note on the fence saying „door code is rwy designators“. There’s often a „house“ airside with a lounge, shower and computer. I don’t see chaos there at all so far.
I have nothing against job creation (cutting grass, 20 security people, a team of fuelers etc..) but it is clear that (a few) hundred euro in fees for a handful of basic sep landings a day aren’t close to helping to pay for that, while they do hurt the pilots and cause a decrease in traffic. Not a viable business model.
While it is ok for me to pay my share for infrastructure present at (usually airline served) those airports that offer public transport, rental cars and restaurants I find it to be ridiculous e.g. to pay a fee to park on an empty ramp at some deserted strip out in nowhere.
Back on topic, my first and so far only stop in Siena was in a C152 many years ago and it was great because we didn’t have to worry about landing fees (anywhere). :)
So how do you suggest we could come close to achieving that ideal?
I agree with most of what you say. I am just wary with Sky Services. It‘s quite an overhead that must be fed. And they have have extorted pilots for the last 4 years.
Just a couple of weeks ago, someone posted on Skydemon:
Got an offer for a Mooney m20k. Nearly 170€ with 1 pax. If more passenger even more expensive. Parking extra Looking for another destination
I will contact them tomorrow to see if they have clear pricing now or whether it‘s still up to negotiation…
boscomantico wrote:
For cash, they do organize immigration though (nothing more than a previous notification to the local authorities).
Any idea of the price for this activity?
