More Airport Ripoffs!!!

[snarek]

Got my Transponder serviced recently, Mode C was out by 200' (Thanks karrank ; ).

Got the bill.

Tuning it $130
Airport LAME access $50!!!

WTF!!!

I pay $1600 a year to park there!!! But they also slug the LAME $50 to 'come on the airport' and work on my parked plane even though he also rents a building there.

AAL Townsville are the airport concerned.

This has gotta stop or GA is stuffed in Tvl. (I count about 10 GA a/c there now, in 1990 there were about 50).

I'm moving my maintenance to Cairns (and no barb at the LAME, just AAL). Me thinks they are w@nkers of the greates extent.

AK

[slice]

This is hilarious - for years AOPA were screaming from the rooftops about paying for towered airports their members don't use through the fuel levy. Now when they do use them (albeit with attendant for-profit margins from privatisation), the whinging continues.

Be careful what you ask for - you might just get it. :E

[snarek]

slice

I have been 'AOPA' now for a tad over 2 years.

I reserve the right to strongly disagree with the policies of prevoius Boards, and do. In fact that is why i stood, to do something about the way things were going.

But remember the Minister's privatisation promise, CPI - 1% maximum price increases.

But DOTARS fulched it up.

AK

[Torres]

Bit reminiscent of the time the FAC charged a "parking fee" - even if the aircraft was inside your own hangar, which was rented/leased from the FAC.

[slice]

BIK - you are correct of course but the way I read it when these changes were made was that there was a raft of reform and along with corporatization of Airservices Australia (inc. LSC) came the privatization of the airports - which (I stand to be corrected) AOPA never took a strong stand against as long as the Fuel Levy went.

But I have to strongly disagree about privatising any ATC services. I believe that where a service is of a unary nature (ie only one provider) privatization is philisophically wrong. Profit-motive in a safety-bound environment where you have a monopoly can be a recipe for disaster - the most horrific example being the Skyguide (Privatised Swiss ATC) 757/TU154 accident.

[RYAN TCAD]

Try this for good measure - the A/C i fly lives in a hangar. My boss pays good money for this.

The LAME rolled the A/C out to be refuelled for our flight the next day, and then rolled it back in the hangar.

BAL charged us for this - $27.80 or something like that - because we used the tarmac!

Doesn't take a genius to work out why there aren't many A/C left on BK airfield anymore. and why GA is dying in the arse!

[Scion]

Look we only have ourselves to blame in a sense!

YSBK is a monopoly for all intents and purposes and their clients have the choice of continuing to play their game or declining to do so.

If the clients stood together and said "No" as they did recently on the fiasco of the charging of aircraft in the owners hangers YSBK would have to accept what they were given.


So I suggest all owners get together and tell Mr Ellis what they think is fair and reasonable. As for the rest "No"

[bonez]

the rip-offs will continue so long as the industry is fragmented


problem is that most airport buyers payed far to much for the facility in the mistaken belief that it would be a golden cow

the only time the golden cow will appear is if the dirt can be sold for other purposes

outside of the metro area it is the community that are the main beneficiary of the local airport not the user therefore the local community should pay via their rates

how many people do you know that avoid locations that charge even small amounts - i know lots and guess who miss s out when that occurs

singularly the worst thing ever for ga was selling the airports

[I Fly]

BIK_116.80, for years some councils had 'landing fees'. But they did not collect the money because the collection process was more expensive than the fee. Comes along AOPA and it's wish for the user pays system. What have we got now. Horrendous airport charges and presumably most of it goes to the cost of collecting. There is also an enormous cost to the aircraft owner. Some pilots who hire aircraft do not declare all the places they land. A month or two later the owner gets a bill and now has to chase the 'culprit' or write off the fee. This system is much more inefficient than anything we had before.

[Tinstaafl]

I think the monopoly is a significant factor. The government is sings the praises of privatisation & the market but conveniently forgets that competition is a cornerstone.

Better if the sell off of Bankstown, Camden & Hoxten Park treated them as mutually exclusive entities ie ownership/shares in one meant automatic exclusion from ownership/shares in the other. At least then there would be the possibility of at least some competition.

[Square Bear]

Bonez

you say:

the only time the golden cow will appear is if the dirt can be sold for other purposes

I don't think the operators of Horn Island Airport subscribe to that theory.

The Horn Island Council just upped the fee for each landing to $20 per tonne (MTOW) or part thereof. A whopping 33% increase over the last increase that was only three years ago.

The average commutor twin landing will now cost $80 - $100 and that is for each landing.

The council must rub their hands with glee when the odd C130 arrives.

With the amount of movements that HID has per year that reeks of Golden Cash Cow to me.

[Capt Hollywood]

Try this then.

Welcome to the Ayers Rock Aerodrome. They charge local operators $6.60 per passenger, that's $26.40 every time you land a full Jetranger or nearly $40 for a full Longranger. Look out if you operate a Caravan! The helicopter operators might do anywhere up to 20 flights a day in each aircraft. And what do they get for their money, the entire helicopter facility consists of yellow 'H's painted on the tarmac and one water hose. No hangar, no electricity, etc...

Between the two helicopter companies based at Ayers Rock they must have paid over $100,000 last year for nothing more than six yellow 'H's. :eek:

On top of this, the Ayers Rock resort, which incidentally also owns the airport, takes a commission (Over 15%!) from the ticket price that pax pay to do scenic flights. Between the three local operators the Resort makes around $500,000 a year in commissions, nice little earner that one!

Cheers,

Hollywood :cool:

[Disco Stu]

I Fly, I don't know where you got "Comes along AOPA and it's wish for the user pays system." but back in the mid 80's the then government got one Henry Bosch to conduct an Inquiry for them. As a result of that Inquiry it became government policy to cost recover ie "User Pays" in the aviation sector, AOPA like the rest of the aviation industry was stuck with it.

However there are 2 sides to any user pay system. If one were to expect that one pays for what one uses, it is equally valid to expect that one does NOT pay for what one DOES NOT use. This quite simply was the argument against the fuel tax system and it remains today an equally valid argument.

The government started this user pays trend, not individuals or associations within the industry.

Disco Stu

[Wizofoz]

Much of what has happened in the last two decades has been a complete distortion of the intent of the Bosch report, and I would be very interested to hear what Henry Bosch would say about the current situation.

"User pays" meant "Cost recovery". It was meant to apply to what were then entirely government owned and controlled instrumentalities, namley the Airports, Airways and saftey enforcement.

The Hawke government immediatley jumped on this concept and changed it to "User pays for us to make a profit", or "We sell the (insert taxpayer owned and already paid for property/agency/system here) for mega-bucks, the new owner makes a profit, we tax the new owner, thus makin more $$$ for lesbian surfboard development."

Bosch's concept was for the industry to re-emburse the tax-payer for the direct cost of running the aviation infrastructure. Successive governments have completely corupted this concept to milk as much cash out of Aviation as they can, and to hell with the long term consequences.