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Greece enforcing slots

Greece bureaucracy is trying all they can to make me never come back …

With the below reply I simply do not know what is included and what not… But even this initial quotation of Goldair handling regarding a week stay in Kerkyra (Corfu) makes you wondering if Greece is indeed the place you want to visit by small plane these days (DA42 in my case)…:

" The handling fees are going to be approximately 200 E Fraport does not tell us the exact amount for landing and parking but from our experience it will Be about 70E per day

Thank you in advance

cfu ops
Operations CFU

Goldair Handling S.A.
Corfu International Airport “Ioannis Kapodistrias”

Tel: +30 26610 33343
Fax: +30 26610 33035
[email protected]
http://www.goldair-handling.com

EP..

achimha wrote:

I think it is a very poor approach. Forcing you to use a handler to get a PPR and thereby giving them a state sanctioned money making monopoly together with all the other superfluous administrative overhead while at the same time every airport concerned has plenty of capacity for small GA is just nonsense. Just like the ridiculous NOTAMed opening hours, it is an example of infrastructre being badly managed.

I agree that the slot/PPR/handling business may be pointless in the first place, but that is a quite different thing from enforcing slots when you already have a slot system.

ESKC (Uppsala/Sundbro), Sweden

Peter wrote:

I wonder if @petakas knows any background here?

The slot request is processed by your handler and they charge for this.
More info. at www.aopa.gr/Info paragraph 31
In this case since I contact the handler in advance anyway I would let them know I am coming IFR and ask whether a SLOT is required.
If it is they handle it and they are very good at email communications back and forth but they charge for it www.aopa.gr/Info paragraph 12.b
Yes SLOTs is hassle killer for GA BUT we must not forger that during peak summer period in Greece at SLOT COORDINATED AIRPORTS the airline traffic is almost at 100% of IFR capacity of the airports and we try to fit in a system that has not left spare capacity for ad hoc flights. We do manage to fit in eventually but experience has shown that its tight, really tight, i.e. they will tell you “we can only get a 10:30 SLOT for you” for the whole morning when for example you need a 12:30 per your GA hassle free schedule and this slot you have to stick to with +/-30 minutes or else trouble starts.

Last weekend I had to fly to LGTS Thessaloníki from Athens.
It cost me less to take the Ryanair bus even with few days before booking and so I did. The b@st@rds won.
On the other hand I have to be honest and share the thought I had. The trip was seamless, on time and I had 0 worries. I arrived and departed at much more relaxed status.
If I had flown there by GA it would have been a stressful couple of flights to keep up to the demands of the system as it is now (PPRs, SLOTs, handlers, security checks).

LGMG Megara, Greece

However, why is Kithira on the list? AFAIK it has only the one flight per day, maybe two. Definitely only one on Wednesday (the 2.5hr opening slot is to give the flight from Athens 1hr before and 1hr after).

This is perhaps Greece’s most beautiful island…

Current timetable:

MON 0930-1430
TUE 0930-1200
WED 1200-1430
THU 0630-1400
FRI 0715-1200
SAT 0930-1330
SUN 0630-1200

Administrator
Shoreham EGKA, United Kingdom

No idea Peter. Only someone from CAA could answer.

LGMG Megara, Greece

I’m flying to Nea Anchialos LGBL on Saturday and then to Megara LGMG (thanks @petakas for tips). Looking at LGBL schedule it doesn’t look busy (7 arrivals and 7 departures on Saturday) but it is also on the list of coordinated airports. Being military airport maybe they have lower capacity for GA but still it seems that slot regime is a bit overkill for it.

On the other side, all 4 international airports in Bosnia (LQSA, LQTZ, LQBK and LQMO) have slot regime for all flights regardless the very few daily operations (18 in total today at LQSA which is the largest one). But there’s no mandatory handling and you get slot approval from the airport, no additonal fees for that and you just need to fill in one form and send it via e-mail 24 hours before your flight (short notices are also tolerated).

LDZA LDVA, Croatia

Megara is really great, the best GR airport I have visited, thanks to the help of Petakas. ZERO stress, low fees, always fuel (truck ti airplane) and a great company (Global) that will hangar your airplane for little money, I paid € 100 per week!

This is coming from the guy who raised the alarm of enroute IFR fees in Germany.

Lets start being a bit more optimistic when we look at these developing events in Greece. The 1/2 glass full analogy as opposed to 1/2 empty. At least you’ll be less frustrated when handlers take your money and do nothing for it. When you pay your 50 or150 Euros you’ll be happy to know they worked to get you your slot. That ,all you had to worry about was the horrible weather, the thunderstorms as you risked your life and the lives of your passengers to make it into that + – 30 min. time slot. When you land on a deserted runway and airport with the follow me car leading you to some distant GA ramp that you feel you got your monies worth.

Last Edited by C210_Flyer at 06 Jul 22:55
KHTO, LHTL

Greece is definitely not a cheap place to fly any more. I tried to avoid using Fraport controlled airports as ports of entry and on recent trip last week.

Based on (non-official) info on prices I decided to fly to Nea Anchialos LGBL expecting to be charged approximately 50€. Of course, I forgot one thing (PPR/slot coordination fee) and I wasn’t informed about additional customs charge. So total bill was 150€. Operations approval requires 4 business days and you can’t get flexible approvals – it has to be exact date and time. On my arrival to Greece I decided it was acceptable but for return flight I wanted more flexibility so I decided to avoid LGBL.

Megara LGMG was excelent as last time when I was there: friendly, cheap and easy to fly to and from. Landing, a week of parking and fee for two passengers was 38€.

I was considering Ioannina LGIO as port of exit but according to NOTAM they didn’t have Jet-A1. So from LGMG I flew to Corfu LGKR considering it easiest option, expensive but without much hassle. I got confirmation on slot and refueling three days before flying there – we agreed that time spend at the apron would be minimal due to other legs I had to fly on my trip and limited working hours of my final destination. However, when I arrived handler didn’t have a clue about what I was talking about neither where I was arriving from not where I was departing to. I was waiting one hour for fuel at apron (40 degrees) and another 30 min for somebody to pick me up after refueling to go to office to pay landing fees. Then it was additional 20 min to clear immigration and customs and return to apron. In the end it was 200€ for non-existing service and 2 hours wasted – totally dissappointed with Swissport. They tried to appologize explaining new situation with Fraport but I refused it because Fraport is there for more than 3 months and they could settle everything by now.

So comparing to Croatia (which I used to consider expensive) Greece is much worse. Everything is overly complicated with mandatory slots, fees are too high and handling received is just non-existing. E.g. two weeks ago I paid 200€ at Split LDSP for landing, handling and 4 days of parking (summer rate 24€/day) or 80€ at Zagreb LDZA for landing, handling and 5 days of parking. The fuel in Greece is much more expensive – price of Jet A1 is double than in Croatia and 4 times more expensive than in Bosnia.

LDZA LDVA, Croatia
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