Originally Posted by soaringhigh650
I heard a rumour that the nearest airport charges £250 for a PA28 landing.
Not quite £ 250.00 but not much change out of £ 150.00.
The airport 'approach fee' is about £ 50.00 and the mandatory handling charges of about £ 80.00 for parking over at the GA terminal, for the privilege of someone popping his head out of the office to point at a parking space that was blatantly obvious in the first place.
Note that the 'approach fee' is just that, a charge for the approach, regardless of whether you land, touch and go or go around. As for the handling fee, the GA terminal on the south-side is nowhere near the main terminal and there is no danger of you getting mixed with the big stuff - in my many landings at Bristol International over the past four years I have never actually been greeted by someone directing me to a parking space and have only witnessed one occasion. A major rip off by the operators, if you ask me.
As for Filton, having flown in and out of there many times over the last four years, what a great airport to operate from and a crying shame that it has to go.
What logic and foresight that was, to make Filton a GA/Business Airport, with its major city on the doorstep; two major motorways (M4 and M5) within 10 minutes via major arterial routes; a main railway line station offering nationwide connections five minutes away; a plethora of nearby hotels; a major hospital with first class A&E facilities only 10 minutes away; several large retail, commercial and business parks within spitting distance and the largest runway on the country, capable of taking ALL aircraft currently flying.
No, it made far more sense to make Lulsgate the international airport for the west country; out in the middle of nowhere surrounded by nothing other than one congested major road (A38); on the top of a hill which is regularly enshrouded in cloud such that the airport has to be CAT III; few facilities in the area and very little in the way of commercial businesses.
There must have been some sense in the decision..........or was it politics?