Naples, Italy or more southern GA friendly airfield

[SP-THC]

I am planning a weekend in Naples or more south of Italy,
Can you recommend a GA friendly Airport/airfield? Preferebly with Avgass (i fly C182)

[IO540]

Italy and Avgas?

You are kidding??

You will be after transparency of corporate behaviour next ;)

But seriously, Italy varies, to such an extent that 100% verification with the airport is a must, and anything less is worthless. 100% worthless.

I flew to Sardinia the other week and spent days verifying the avgas issue. In the end only Cagliari had avgas, despite protestations to the contrary. Oristano had it too (I stood next to the pump) but when I asked whether I can buy some I got some smiles...

[vanhigher]

Salerno , just south of Naples is the place to go , and last time I went a couple of years ago Avgas was available

[421C]

I went to Salerno last month. Nice GA airport, a bit deserted. I think this is the GA choice for Naples/south of Naples area.

Avgas is supplied by a small GA business called Aerial Banners. They have a hangar on the North side of the West Apron and the fixed bowser is next to it.
Their phone # is +39 0828 35 47 22, check/arrange over the phone. The owner was a very nice guy who spoke good English. It's a great little family run aviation business. They also supplied piston engine oil. When you arrive, it's worth asking the LIRI info freq to taxi straight to Aerial Banners, before repositioning on the Eastern (main) apron.

Due to parachute jumping, you have to radio for permission to start engines, even if repositioning only.

For handling, email [email protected] ([email protected])
It's just the airport people, there's no commercial agent to try and charge you jet prices. However, they don't speak much English, so phoning not a lot of good. Email response was quick though.

brgds
421C

[AfricanEagle]

I can confirm Salerno (LIRI) as best choice in the Naples area for GA and information provided by 421C is precise and correct.

Naples is busy, overcrowded and not GA friendly requiring PPR for parking.

Further south of Salerno there is Scalea (AEROPORTO SCALEA (http://www.aeroportoscalea.it/)) with fuel (valid only as fuel stop, not for a night stopover) and then Reggio Calabria (LICR) also with avgas.

Lametia (LICA) no avgas.

[007helicopter]

Naples I can not remember the fee but did not recall extortion last year, fairly close to town and Avgas was not a problem so do not necesscarily rule it out.

[pa_24_260]

I visited Naples Capodichino a bit over a month ago. Due to a misunterstanding between myself and my friend, none of us had checked the AIP entry for LIRN until a few hours before departing from Corfu. The relevant part is:
For a stop of more than 2 HR, the request must be forwarded at least 12 HR prior to the estimated arrival. The long term parking must not exceed 72
HR.

We tried to reach the airport by phone and email without success, so we departed anyway with the intent of diverting to the alternate in the event a landing clearance would be refused.

We were able to land (at 7:50 PM) without being questioned, but once on the ground we were met by an airport official who asked us to confirm that our intentions were refuelling followed by an immediate departure. We explained that we actually planned to stay for two nights. After quite a bit of negotiation, my (Italian-speaking) friend managed to secure us the right to stay until 10 AM the next day, but that was all they would give us, due to an alledged scarcity of parking spaces.

The total fees (landing, handling etc) added up to around 110 euro.

[IO540]

And whenever I write something about Italian hassles, a bunch of people jump on me saying it is based on 1 or 2 bad experiences.... :ugh:

May as well try flying to Libya. It is just down the road from Italy, after all.

If you want to fly somewhere nice, but with no hassles, go to Croatia. I have had 100% positive experiences there, on many visits.

One can't rely on ATC enforcing PPR or parking limits, or even knowing anything of relevance about the airport where they are employed. In some cases they will diligently enforce Customs PNR (I was refused a landing clearance, from short final, at Padova over this) but in Italy in particular they don't give a damn about anything else. ATC is a different workforce (and probably a different union) to the ground staff and they are not likely to talk to each other. I landed at Treviso on a diversion having carefully checked in the air they have avgas but after landing it turned out they don't have avgas (not available to visitors).

Yes one could say "read the AIP" but any half seasoned traveller will know that the AIPs for (in particular) much of southern Europe are full of garbage which is not actually operated on the ground. The garbage starts with non-working phone/fax numbers and goes on from there. There is only one way to fly to these places and that is a written contact with the airport. No contact = no flight.