Originally Posted by
Mike Flynn
There are some wonderful small airports I frequent around the world. Most of the commentators here are airline spotters and ‘enthusiasts’ but not pilots. In reply to Nick I suggest you take a look at why Norwich Airport gets such bad reviews. I speak as someone who has spent a small fortune on fixed wing and helicopters over 35 years across the globe. I think that entitles me to post fair comment.
You post as a non pilot on what is a pilots forum.
Hang on a minute Mr Flynn, are you saying that only professional pilots are qualified to post on PPRuNe? If that is so how come people like me have been allowed to join and post regularly for so many years? I never advanced beyond being a very rudimentary light aircraft pilot but my aviation experience is I'm sure as great as yours but in different areas of expertise and has certainly enabled me to contribute to the knowledge base of PPRuNe.
Getting back to NWI, since retirement it is now my local airport (although my then company did operate an aircraft from there some 15 years ago) and I use it regularly with its useful, but limited, number of destinations. I wholeheartedly agree with you on the subject of the Airport Development Fee and I consider it a drag on the airport's potential to attract new operators and routes. It has to be borne in mind though that the catchment for NWI is relatively small and it was really the demands of the oil and gas industry that gave it the basis upon which to develop more leisure oriented routes over the years. The "wonderful small airports" that you frequent no doubt have their own commercial advantages enabling them to achieve this; perhaps serving tourist resorts or wealthy communities and the like where revenues are sufficiently high. There are few small airports that I can think of which achieve a "wonderful" rating but there are a number which I have enjoyed using over the decades. Not many of them are in Europe however. I wonder if you have used EXT recently: now there is an airport that takes you straight back to the 1960s.
I'm not knocking your views in general but think that a little more realism is perhaps required.