Often when flying longer trips A-B it takes quite some due diligence to find a suitable stop in between. A quick „best of“ list of airports without too many local special procedures would be handy.
Other times one simply looks for a good „new“ destination.
Definition of „top airport:
Hard surface, IFR, low hassle, fuel, no massive fee surprises.
Top in Austria in random order:
EAST
LOAN Wiener Neustadt
RNP APP cloud break, IFR DEP, uncontrolled, no security :), landing on 09 is a bit challenging due to bordering mil airspace and narrow base/final.
Customs/Immigration avail with prior notice on website.
EAST
LOAV Bad Voeslau
RNP APP cloud break, IFR DEP, uncontrolled, no security :). Customs/Immigration avail with prior notice.
NORTH
LOWL Linz
IFR APP/DEP, radar control/towered, low hassle security, quick walk to/from plane. Customs/Immigration available.
SOUTH
LOWG Graz
IFR APP/DEP, radar control/towered, low hassle security, quick walk to from/plane. https://airports.euroga.org/record.php?id=95
Customs immigration available.
SOUTH
LOWK Klagenfurt
IFR APP/DEP, radar control/towered, low hassle security.
Customs/immigration available.
NORTH
LOWS Salzburg
IFR APP/DEP, radar control/towered, low hassle security, van to/from plane.
Customs/immigration available.
WEST
LOWI Innsbruck
IFR APP/DEP, radar control/towered, low hassle security, quick walk to/from plane.
*observe mountains/weather phenomena*
Customs/immigration available.
For Sweden….
…for sure ESOW (Stockholm-Västerås). Biased, as it’s’ my home airport…but fully IFR, no long SIDs or STARs, short taxi, supereasy fueling, friendly ATC…and nice waffles in café. Watch out for tower opening hours (tower needs to be open, if not based), landing fee for not based aircrafts (250 SEK?) and remember it’s PPR!
…another quick easy in/out in Sweden more to the south would be ESMQ (Kalmar). IFR, fueling, reasonable fees, watch out for opening hours. But no waffles…
I am sure there are more!
I would say that all IFR airports in Sweden are very easy, no hassle and reasonable fees except for:
Stockholm/Arlanda ESSA
Stockholm/Bromma ESSB
Göteborg/Landvetter ESGG
The important thing is to make sure that you can get in and out when you need to. If ATS is not open you will have to arrange it by calling the airport or talk to someone at the aero club, preferably well in advance.
Well the top 3 in Czech Republic for GA would definitely be:
LKKV – Karlovy Vary (Carlsbad) on the west, LKTB – Brno and LKMT – Ostrava on the east.
LKKV is open until 17:00 UTC during summer times and 14:00 in the winter, otherwise the other two are operating 24h
For the UK – EGMC London Southend airport.
IFR, low fees, ILS both runway ends, low DAs, the weather is usually better than in other places.
The others – not sure. May be Exeter EGTE, Liverpool EGGP?
arj1 wrote:
For the UK – EGMC London Southend airport.
+1 for Southend and it has everything including the best of the SE weather
The worst IFR airport was Biggin Hill EGKB, nightmare to book in/out without too much “coordination” but I understand now FPL does the job, and +1000ft DA on IAP (700ft from the hill and 300ft from published IAP), without going IFR to Southend you can land VFR at Thurrock/Damyns Hall while Biggin is hard-core IFR, still top facility airport and far more convenient place to fly from !
Fly310 wrote:
I would say that all IFR airports in Sweden are very easy, no hassle and reasonable fees
I would expect the same for Norway. All the larger ones are fine (open 24/7, fuel etc), except perhaps ENGM. In these Corona-times maybe even ENGM is OK? don’t know. The smaller ones could be problematic with 100LL, and be sure to check opening hours.
For south of Sweden ESMS (Malmö) is very GA-friendly and always open with fuel and parking.
Dimme wrote:
For soth of Sweden ESMS (Malmö) is very GA-friendly and always open with fuel and parking.
Just make sure to not use the official refueller (WorldFuel Services) who charges a €50 “hookup fee”. There are also GA refueling stations run by local operators.
The UK has a fair number, though very few with wide opening hours. Left to right, in the south:
Scilly Isles
Alderney / Guernsey / Jersey (Jersey has some parking issues)
Newquay
Exeter
Bournemouth
Shoreham
Biggin Hill
Lydd
then further up north
Cardiff
Oxford
Southend
Norwich
and many more further up north.
I believe only Cardiff and Southend are “H24” although that may be old info. Southend charged about £200 extra after 10pm. Biggin opens till 11pm but charges similarly after 9pm.
Always check AIP and notams – all accessible nicely via the EuroGA airport database 
Many UK airports are PNR or PPR but it is just a phone call usually and of course they speak English (well sort of, in some places 
).
