The setup is not there at a lot of airports Peter for VIP, a lot of these handlers use the normal terminal and facilities. Thats not to say they dont charge the earth. Infact, it's becoming the norm now, with a few notable exceptions to give poor but expensive service. I can't see how we evade the charges, these thieving numpties have our hands tied via the mandatory handling for jets or a weight category. The bills just get bigger... And now there is the ETS to pay!
An example of airports/handlers who don't mandate VIP terminals etc.
Aberdeen (Signature) - a portacabin. Does the job fine.
Klagenfurt - still bloody expensive.
Gdansk (Executive Services) - use pax terminal.
Larnaka (Abelair) - have the choice, use one if you want to.
Pafos - Normal terminal. Nice, new and improving.
Rhodes (Euro Aviation) - use normal terminal. Can be slow like a lot of Greece.
Doha (Qatar Handling) - you have the choice of the new Rizon Jet VVIP terminal (nicest I've been too but very expensive) or the normal route through the pax terminal.
Zadar - very affordable and fast service. Normal building.
Alexandria (Tiger/Zas Aviation) - normal terminal with usual Egyptian delays whether VIP or not, it makes no difference.
Marsa Alam - same.
Haifa - self handle mostly.
Sde Dov - ditto.
Cannakale - normal terminal. No posh facilities. Fine by Turkish standards.
Istanbul (SAW) - normal terminal. Dirty, slow.
Shannon - normal terminal makes sense as VIP rooms are in it... Saves cost.
Ronaldsway - normal terminal.
Nordholtz/Cuxhaven - normal terminal.
Altenrhein - normal terminal, nearly big enough to call it that.
Amman ( Queen Alia) - normal terminal. VIP is available at cost though.
Constanta - normal terminal. Usual Romanian slow service.
Antwerp - normal terminal. No frills.
Le Castellet - normal building pretty much VIP anyway.
Simferopol - normal terminal. VIP available. v costly! Ukrainian usual slow...
Talin - normal terminal. Estonians are quite efficient.
Aalborg - use normal terminal.
The above don't mandate paying for VIP facilities. Why should Shoreham! You can't escape using handling in most cases now for bizjets, but abonanza for goodness sake...
For interests sake, my top three friendliest FBO/handlers are:
Beirut - executive aircraft services. In the VIP terminal.
KLM Rotterdam Jet Centre - fast usually. Easy to use. Expensive though!
Hamburg - Service People FBO. Friendly and efficient.
In my job, we don't begrudge paying. Just don't mandate fancy limos and VIP terminals.
Andy R - I bloody hope it's cheaper than Biggin... It's nowhere near to London comparitively. Don't compare the two for business aviation. The runway is far too short to attract any serious bizav traffic anyhow.
Tea, biscuits, meet and greet tarts and a pc to use... Not value in my view.
Nothing wrong with the cafe, free wifi. Saves you some bucks!