As my home airfield (and workplace) features in the 'name and shame' list, here's my twopenneth...
Its a sad fact that some individuals DO abuse the system. I'm aware of four occasions in the last year or so when aircraft have been unable to land at airfields or strips in the vicinity of mine due to FORECAST poor weather.
In one instance, the pilot had made several phone calls from abroad, throughout the course of the day, to check our weather. Our METAR's and TAF made it patently obvious that there was no way on earth he'd be able to land at his intended destination about 15 miles down the road, which has no facilities. A couple of hours later he calls up 'diverting' to us due weather at his strip. He completed an Instrument Approach to one of our Licensed, illuminated runways and landed without incident. He then proceeded to throw his toys out of the pram when we dared to charge him a landing fee, claiming 'weather diversions should be free etc...'. This isn't a one off either. As I mentioned earlier I've spoken to another three aircraft who've all 'tried it on'....I'm sure there have been many more.
OK, that's not a huge sum money for us to lose but do not underestimate the cost of providing the level of service that we do. We provide a Licensed facility with full ATC including Radar, 3 runways, lighting, navaids and fire cover. The annual wage bill for ATC and AFS staff to meet the minimum levels as specified by the CAA's ATC and Aerodrome Licensing documentation is almost £500K. We're very busy, handling over 80 000 movements per year, but the maths is simple...to cover the staffing costs alone, we'd need to charge at least £12 for every landing. Our four flying clubs couldn't absorb that when circuit bashing. Factor in the additional costs associated with the upkeep and maintenance of the 400 acre site, the insurance bill, which has leapt by 120% since 9/11 and the small matter of actually trying to make a profit for the shareholders and perhaps you'll get some idea of the problems we face.
Our particular situation is not unique. We have a thriving 'Corporate' market and some limited Commercial passenger services but GA will always be our primary revenue stream. Our runway lengths preclude high yield scheduled and IT traffic, so we're always fighting a battle to make the books balance. The CAA are compounding the problems. Aerodrome Safeguarding (working with Planning Authorities to stop Joe Bloggs building a block of flats on your climbout) and Instrument Approach design are just two recent examples of additional responsibilities which are being 'passed on to industry' and Security at GA fields is the next shadow looming on the horizon.
I won't deny that there is a margin on fuel sales, Jet A1 particularly, but even so, the revenue derived from flying operations simply doesn't cover the costs. Fortunately, we have a large portfolio of real estate (a business park) which makes up the shortfall. Across the industry, this is commonplace. Even Heathrow and Gatwick make more money from passengers and concessions than from aeroplanes.
What's the answer? We could downgrade the service levels but we'd lose the commercial traffic, become unlicensed but we'd lose the trainers, sell the whole place for real estate...then you couldn't divert there however cr*p the weather was.
Let's be honest. We all on the lookout for a good deal, that's why the freebie vouchers in Pilot and Flyer are so well used but what does the industry gain out of it? My airfield has participated in the Pilot free landing promotion on two occasions. We've been inundated with new visitors, who freely admit that they're impressed with our facilities but probably wouldn't have come if they'd had to pay a landing fee. We've picked up a small amount of repeat business and fuel sales but from a purely accounting perspective, it's cost us money. I'm as guilty as the next man having used vouchers at Oxford and Enstone last week, but are we doing more damge to GA by expecting something for nothing?
You plan to fly from A to B where you'd expect to pay a landing fee, what's the difference if you end up at C?
The final irony for me is that we participate in a ridiculously expensive hobby where we are happy to pay over £100 per hour to hire a club spamcan but we're bemoaning paying probably less than £20 in the vast majority of cases.
On the one occasion I've had to divert (alternator failure when VMC on top) I'd have happily paid the fee at Bournemouth, because the service I received was worth every penny.
Maybe I'm a coward but I just can't imagine a situation where I'd put the cost of a diversion ahead of safety of me and my passengers.
IMHO, Mr. Strasser could do better with his time and effort attempting to instill those 'culture changes' at the training stage than this pointless 'crusade'
As a final noteworthy point, when my airfield did offer a concession of a free landing to aircraft declaring an emergency and a 50% reduction for genuine wx diversions, Mr. Strasser declined to add our name to the list.