Originally Posted by
richpea
I have no idea of the cost breakdowns and am loathe to talk any more about issues I have absolutely no knowledge about, but I can imagine several scenarios to do with both training practicalities and airport services costs where arguments could be made for foreign students to pay more... use your imagination. I'm not saying that's super fair and equal in a perfect world, and the reason for that is because I can also use my imagination to see how difficult it must be on average Polish wages to save up the amount needed for training. I have no idea how the extra money I paid is allocated or where it goes to, but I think its a bit hypocritical to go on about "fairness fairness fairness" and not pay service to the fact that the cheaper price for Polish nationals probably allows more Poles to realistically undertake flight training, whilst the price for foreigners still allows the majority of the foreign trainees to complete their training at an incredibly reasonable price. And I'm not asking anyone from Smart to explain it for me because I was super happy with the price of my training, and its quality for that price, regardless.
I don't to believe that the price difference is driven by SA's philanthropic approach towards their own. I presume that it's just a business model based on the purchasing power of the two markets they serve; locals and foreigners.
Regardless of the actual reason - I don't think that passport based pricing should exist in a 'first world country', especially one that is part of the European union.
So I am curious: why do the landing fees differ between locals and foreigners (more than double, acc. SA website). These fees are to be paid directly to the airport; they surely don't charge based on nationalities?
What's the story here, maybe the HoT could help us out with this one?
