I am not sure on this but I know in Italy handling was compulsory but what is handling.
You cannot have pilots walking from aircraft unattended and airports either have to offer a service to collect and deposit you at the aircraft or designate a handling agent agents to perform that duty.
We were collected by the airport and told we had to use a handling agent who wanted to charge a fortune on top.
The Airport collected us not the handling agent so what was the $500 Euro for? use of a reception area?
We argued that by collecting us we were infact meeting their requirements for handling and they backed off
The same applies to Ostend where I go a lot we use the airport handling not the handling agent based there.
So make sure you legally have to use an agent and its not just jobs for the boys
Pace
Last edited by Pace; 11th Mar 2016 at 08:17.