Wasn’t there a huge TBM fly-in there last year, with mysteriously specially organised customs and immigration? Here you go. But nobody saying how it was done 
That sounds acceptable for a short stay. They also offered me a special for a longer stay, with a hangar for my plane.
I couldn’t take it this time, due to corona, but I might well later. It’s always good to talk, and the least productive is complaining in public fora.
It is great to see that Siena is open to GA again, given the Florence airport attempts to discourage SEP GA. The area between Florence and Siena is of high touristic interest.
What is striking, is how much more innovative and business-oriented the Slovenians are than many Italian companies. It seems from this write-up that Sky Services is more an example of the latter. Maybe they’ve taken their cue from Fraport. Portoroz is a perfect example of the former. Smaller Italian airfields run by local groups, such as Lucca, Treni, and Scalea are able to offer a very attractive airfield without such complex services and high pricing.
boscomantico wrote:
I will contact them tomorrow to see if they have clear pricing now or whether it‘s still up to negotiation…
Hi Bosco! Were you able to confirm?
Not quite. Last week, they responded that their central marketing office will send me a price list, but so far, I have not received it. I fear there isn‘t actually a new one. I will remind them.
On immigration, they did confirm that they will gladly organize that, i.e. inform the authorities about the flight. They didn‘t say if the „gladly“ means that there would be an additional fee…
So, now they have come back to me and….
… I am laughing out loud!
Actually, the handling is still 100€.
And, ON TOP, they now also charge a „Covid-19 prevention sytem fee“. A mere 75€…
So that‘s what their „new“ proces are all about…
(They actually don‘t have any price list; they can merely produce pro forma invoices showing the various items that would be charged).
The only positive thing is that they seem to hae backed down on their previous crazy parking fees. They are now only charging the very low standard ENAC parking fees of 0.07€/ton/hour, so just a few Euros per day.
Anyway, after all these fees, including landing and pax fees, it is now impossible to spend less than 220€ there.
Grrh!
I am sure this is an error and am glad the new pricing scheme has been put to the test. I’ll make them aware of their mistake and hopefully they will make amends. Which aircraft type did you specify?
That was for a SEP <2tons.
I contacted Skyservices yet again and they insisted that they will honor the 75+15 and that it was a mistake.They also said they would credit you the difference if you were charged a higher amount.
Anyone else with a recent experience to share so we can re-confirm?
I can confirm the “Covid19 Prevention System Fee” of 75€ – that’s part of ‘my’ offer as well. ‘My’ offer may be difficult to compare with the usual one or two day stints – I very often spend holidays in Tuscany, and Siena would be very well suited to get there.
Therefore I have asked for a stay of one month in a hangar, to see how they handle that time element. They offered me a lump sum, which is lower than what I would have paid under the 50€/day regime, but still considerably higher than the ENAC fee, which I guess is without a hangar….
So, while these “Covid-19” and handling fees are quite high for someone who only stays there for a couple of days, for me they actually are small-ish compared to what I would have to spend for parking. This ENAC fee seems to be an interesting angle though… @boscomantico may I ask when they sent you this offer ?
The guy on the ground there is very nice, but he cannot decide, so he copies everything to skyservices marketing HQ…. and it is marketing who send the pro forma invoices. They probably decide each case over a capuccino :))) I haven’t bothered yet to dig into Italian GA fora to see what the general opinion there is re. their fees, but my personal guess is, Siena would have more revenues if they considerably lowered these ridiculous fees. Perhaps someone with insight into the Italian GA scene could help ?
Remark: given the difficulties smaller SEP airplanes are facing at Florence airport, Siena could establish itself as a true alternative to visit Tuscany. Getting from Siena to Florence is a 30-45 minute drive, but they could serve a lot of other touristic and also historically interesting places such as Arezzo, Perugia, Orvieto, and the coast such as Grosseto, Castiglione della Pescaia, Punta Ala…
So, from a marketing perspective they do a bad job, essentially. It is a shame. A true shame.
