Menu Sign In Contact FAQ
Banner
Welcome to our forums

Corfu LGKR

During this summer I applied several times for a PPR at LGKR (Corfu). Two first ones (for two weeks parking and next – for a week of parking) – rejected. After some discussions between handler and Fraport – I got an advice to apply at least a week in advance and for not more than 3-4 days…

This eventually worked, at some point I got a PPR for 3 days of parking, however due to personal reasons this one I had to cancel. Instead I urgently needed to fly Corfu bit earlier, for 2 days only. This request initially was also rejected, but after some calls I got the permission to fly there last Monday-Tuesday (instead of Sunday-Tuesday I initially applied for).

Except for high bill (200 Euro for 2 departing passengers) everything went very smoothly. I was parked bit away (apron A), so next day for refueling I needed to taxi back to GA apron (the one by fire station). But this was no event, marshaller, “cross the runway”, that’s all. Refueling truck after 3 minutes, fast service, nothing to add, perfect.

So after that visit I have some mixed fillings, being honest. To get to Corfu looks like a serious challenge currently. But once you are there (except high fees) – everything works really smoothly. Why it is so difficult to get this PPR – I do not know. True is they have lots of CAT during summer, but to squeeze a GA plane somewhere between them – it did not look like a big challenge to me. Neither for the Approach, I got vectors, information about “no speed limits” for my DA42 :) – that’s all, nothing extraordinary. I also do not think that the lack of parking space is some real limiting factor – there is one GA apron at the fire station, next parking – on the other side of the runway where I was parked. There were just few planes on apron A (one jet and two dromaders), also 3 or 4 by the fire station. 1/5 capacity used?

Maybe after this Fraport take-over people there need some time to learn how to manage “big iron” with the smaller planes? I really hope that with time the situation for GA is going to improve. This summer I can’t say any good about this PPR process.

EP..

(edited to change “CAA” to “Fraport” since the old CAA functions are now done by Fraport)

Administrator
Shoreham EGKA, United Kingdom

So it looks Peter there are even more places to park…
I was parked in some other location, by taxiway A. As I put earlier, there was me, one jet and two Dromaders.
Wondering why all these refusals… Maybe lack of experience is a factor here? Fraport people are managing this airport for just few months, right at the vacations peak, this must be the reason.

Last Edited by Bart at 27 Aug 19:20
EP..

Laziness and incompetence are close allies there.

I have a lot of experience operating 737/757/767 from LGKR for 30 years up until last October.The area east of the 17 threshold will experience a lot of jet blast as the over 90 degree turn is made onto the runway and note traffic on the road adjacent to the undershoot is stopped by the police.Certain lower performance jets the A320 and 737 often have to use 17 with a tailwind for departure to achieve sufficient performance for non stop return flights.Maybe the reason the area highlighted is not used for light GA parking.I always found it a challenging airport to operate to.Regards Stampe

EGMD EGTO EGKR, United Kingdom

Thanks Stampe, a plausible explanation I think. I hadn’t previously realized how close the visiting small GA parking (which is the one east of the threshold 17) was to the hold short position and that any aircraft lining up on 17 blasts all over that place.

I don’t know for sure, but maybe indeed there has been a recent change in parking arrangements there. Previously, all small visiting GA parked east of the threshold 17. Very rarely would there be problems obtaining PPR, even for longer periods. They would be make huge fuss if you didn’t get PPR, but if you did, is was not usually rejected, not even in high season.

This makes the place lose yet another star in my rating. It used to be poor, then went from poor to dreadful when the fees went to ~200€, and now has become even worse.

In general, this whole parking PPR nonsense is getting to the point where it really makes flying in summer difficult in Europe, but I will leave that to a different thread.

Mainz (EDFZ) & Egelsbach (EDFE), Germany

It’s possible they had a taildragger blown off that area by a jet making that turn, but I have stood there, next to my plane, quite a few times while some passenger jet taxied along and then turned onto the runway, and never noticed any significant “wind” from it. But I guess if some jet wound its engines right up, it might have been a problem. Must have been very rare though because Corfu airport has been there since for ever and a few years ago there was a Stearman (I have a photo of it) parked roughly where the arrow points

Corfu is one of very few airports which have been proven capable of refusing a landing clearance if PPR was not complied with.

Administrator
Shoreham EGKA, United Kingdom

In a heavy if you keep moving little thrust is needed but to breakout from stationary especially if a turn is involved …lots of power.As a lifelong light aircraft aviator I like to feel I was acutely aware of smaller craft behind me.I don,t think that’s the case with lots of my former colleagues and the industry tends to set procedures to cater for the lowest denominator.The west apron I,m guessing is military as I,ve only seen Dromader military firefighting sprayers on.I,m guessing as a runway crossing is involved access to the airport facilities is problematic.Greeces airports are very primitive and under resourced.They want the tourism but infrastructure is very poor.Regards Stampe.

EGMD EGTO EGKR, United Kingdom

Dear @Stampe you are absolutely right, even though I do not fly airliners but light planes I do realize that this northeast end of the airport is tricky in a worst case scenario when an airliner may need to use more than idle power to leave the holding point Rwy 17 on twy A.

The solution to this would be a BLAST BARRIER (indicated in red below) and 13 GA aircraft could fit in there without safely woes.
If any of my PPR requests were guaranteed on the basis that I would push it back in there myself I would have no issue.

In the last decades that I can remember there has never been a jet blast incident in that corner of the airport and Rwy 17 was always the preferential one for departures.

The worst case scenario of a jet engine blasting towards a GA aircraft there is ~35 meters distance. It is close but not that close since the jet there is not (yet) at the turning point for rwy 17. By the point it will reach the turn radius to line up on rwy 17 the engines are already 110 meters away from the closest GA aircraft in the parking.

Last Edited by petakas at 28 Aug 06:54
LGMG Megara, Greece

I also did not have a feeling of a particular threat from blast of turning BIGs there, but maybe…?, I am far from having much experience in this area (on a daily basis operating from no jets airfield).
But I have two nice pictures that can give us some good perspective to discuss this subject more, if someone wishes. For me it looks like properly set there, first line some larger jests (capable to withstand whatever the blast comes), second line, further away – one can see some proud representative of GA…

I do not think Stampe the parking on the other side (where I was put, on the west, through taxiway A) is a military one. On Jeppesen IIRC it says “light aircraft parking”, I saw nothing military there (the two Dromaders were for fire fighting). I would have preferred to be parked on the other side, despite this potential blast issues, but as I said before, next day taxing for refuelling from one side to another was no issue. So this is not a problem in fact, here or there, just park me somewhere when the need is…

EP..
76 Posts
Sign in to add your message

Back to Top