Landing Fees (YSBK) - Some help !??!

[FlugWeasel]

This is not the usual grumble about airport landing fees.

I have no problem paying a reasonable fee for the services that I consume as the user of an airport. But as an informed consumer I would like to understand what I am paying and to whom ?

I have just seen the Bankstown landing fee charged on my recent aircraft hire increase almost 50% compared to 4 months ago . GST is charged on top of this basically coming to a fee of almost $20 for a Piper Arrow. Dont get me wrong, that is still pretty good value for the privilege of being able to fly about for the day and small in comparison to actual aircraft!

A quick look at other operators shows a wide spread of landing fee prices and GST treatments.

This made me curious about how the fee is actually calculated and charged back to me as an end-user.

I have done some back of envelope calculations based on the 1200Kg MTOW of my aircraft I hired, but I am missing something. I also cant see where 50% increase is attributed.

Looking at the Bankstown Airports Limited (BAL) website http://www.bankstownairport.com.au/charges/ACH020.asp?con=1
it is a little confusing:

Above 10Tonne MTOW Below 10Tonne MTOW
$7.16 Per Tonne MTOW $9.08 per Tonne MTOW
per Landing pro rate and pro rata per day or

All GST Inclusive.

So my questions:

1. Who is actually paid what for the landing fee ? Is there more to it that the charge to BAL ? Is there a separate charge for tower operations to ASA ?

2. Has the underlying fee really jumped 50% in 6 months ?

3. Why is the GST added again ? Looks like it is being collected twice.

4. It looks there are some form of volume discounts available. How does this work in reality.

5. Are my suspicions correct that there is some extra margin loaded in here ? Landing fees being akin to garlic bread and creme brulee in the restaurant business ?

It would be greatly appreciated if someone can shed some light on the hard facts.

Is there a YSBK owner/operator out there that sees the raw charges and the invoices ?

[aeroprof]

Hi Flugweasel

I Dont know what the raw charges are but I am only paying $12 for an Arrow.
Perhaps you need another flying school/club!

Aeroprof

[TLAW]

Can anyone explain why the ERSA says;

"AD Charges: All ACFT - contact AD OPR for price structure and conditions of use."

[zepthiir]

Ditto aeroprof, my last landing charge for an arrow was $12 also.

Sounds to me like the business that you are flying from may be taking a nice commision from your landing fee. I would ask around and try to get to the bottom of this before hiring from them again.

Zepth

[Led Zep]

Checked the website, and yes, it does look like someone is skimming some off the top!
Bits are missing though, unless it is my system playing up.

[Biggles_in_Oz]

Airservices charge a fee for each full-stop landing. (around $11 and rising).
BAL charge a parking/usage fee. (as per their web site)

BALs' "pay-for-parking-in-advance" is now not much better than the daily rate, and is one reason why a lot of planes have departed from Bankstown.

The school might be trying to recoup both of those fees by lumping them together, because it'd be a pain to have to send out furthur invoices to hirers, possibly 3 months after the event.

[DeltaSix]

I think I paid $15.00 for landing fee on the BE76 Duchess.

I'd be really worried if they start charging landing fees everytime you touchdown doing a touch and go.

[Ultralights]

what about the occasional stop and go during a session of touch n go's

[KLN94]

I think BAL's pricing regime over the last five years is blatant 'price gouging' at its worst. Look at the results. Hardly any planes live there now compared to 2001, many aviation businesses are closing up after going out of business. Jobs for flight instructors going. Runway 18/36 closed.

I owned a plane but have now sold it due to the fees to keep it at Bankstown becoming too expensive. $20 just to take it out the hangar door...

It is as if they want aviation to close down and simply go away so they can put more develeopments like 'Bunnings' in.

Shame is, unlike Mebourne or Brisbane that have more options than Sydney for airports, there is nowhere else to go to, Camden is too far. Hoxton is about to be closed. Shofeilds is closed. Richmond military. Warnerval and Coorangbong rumoured to be closing.

Where can we go?

[123567]

Just be fortunate that you don't have to fly into Hong Kong.

We just had to pay $32,000HKD for a stop over of two hours....

Now thats expensive.....