Light GA unwelcome at Spanish Airports since Jan 1st

[blackboard]

On Dec 22nd, the new Spanish State budgets have been approved for 2011.

As a result, effective Jan 1st, there has been an overall lowering of landing fees for AENA airports (basically most airports is Spain), except for aircraft under 20 tons:

The landing fee per ton used to be in increasing MTOW incremental steps at 10 and 100 tons. The new per-ton-fee is the same for every MTOW, with the result of lowering the fees for heavier aircraft.

However, (and this is a BIG HOWEVER), a new 'minimum fee per movement' has been implemented. This fee is inclusive of the landing fee, so you pay the higher of:

1) Your MTOW weight in tons (or fractions thereof) times the per-ton-fee
and
2) The "minimum-per-movement fee"

This new fee ranges from 10.24EUR at small or GA airports like Cuatro Vientos to 151EUR at Madrid-Barajas.

Of course this 'minimum fee' scheme only affects light aircraft.

As an example, in LEAL Alicante, a typical 1.5 ton aircraft used to pay 10.78EUR plus VAT in 2010, but 94.65 in 2011. This is an increase of 778% or well over an eight-fold increase!!:uhoh: Additionally if you are liable for VAT, it has been increased from 16% to 18% since mid 2010.

On average, the (exclusive of VAT) landing fee increase/decrease at all AENA airports has been:

MTOW =1.5 tons: +255%
MTOW>20tons: -26%
MTOW>100tons -34%

Big death blow for light GA at Spanish airports.:sad:

See new and old fees ('tarifas') here in Spanish (http://www.aena.es/csee/Satellite?Language=ES_ES&SiteName=Comercial&c=Page&cid=1073899177765&pagename=subHome) I still havent found the 2011 English version.

[patowalker]

Next to the Spanish flag on the right there is a drop-down list which includes English.

[Jan Olieslagers]

... and which, regrettably, does not change any of the output. Still, after some loitering around, I managed to locate

http://www.aena.es/csee/ccurl/962/744/Schedule_of_charges_2011.pdf

[codemonkey]

i flew into Granada recently, had one of those "follow me" cars leading to the GA parking and then marshalling to a stop, the bill: 12 euros / gbp 10. i do remember thinking that would be great service at 3 times the price if in the uk. i also remember thinking that laying down concrete is the engine of the spanish economy and as such they have a lot of airpport capacity that ought to be very cheap.

[blackboard]

Thanks, Jan.

Codemonkey,

While we have to accept that landing fees used to be quite cheap (Granada has now doubled for a 1.5 ton aircraft) , it cannot be fair that a 1 ton aircraft pays the same as a 20 ton one.

It also cannot be fair that this increase is done on the grounds of fixing AENA's losses when the effect of this in AENAs accounts will be NIL.

This is just the leftovers from a 2011 budget law that planned to increase landing fees, but ended-up lowering them at the pressure of airlines and the tourism industry, compounded with a desire to deter GA access to airports.

[patowalker]

... and which, regrettably, does not change any of the output. Still, after some loitering around, I managed to locate

Jan,

You're joking. Was it necessary for me to add that you had to click on the arrow? Aena may come in for a lot of stick, but when it says Elija Idioma/Choose Language, it means it.

[172driver]

Well, I guess AENA somehow have to find the money to pay their
EUR 300k/p.a. ATCOs. Now if only more of them spoke proper English.....

If you look at the list, it's pretty obvious that they want to discourage GA (at least the small variety) at busy airports.

The only real bummers are Alicante & Malaga in tier three (EUR 95,65 - ouch) and pretty much the entire tier four (where at least in Valencia, you have to add EUR 50 mandatory handling). How Seville, with hardly any scheduled traffic, got into this tier is most likely explained by politics....

In any case, the real problem with this is that Spain doesn't have an awful lot of small fields where one could avoid the big airports.

[LH2]

Pato,

Jan,

You're joking. Was it necessary for me to add that you had to click on the arrow?

I think what was meant there was that the fees were the same in the English and the Spanish versions. Or at least that's the way I read it.

[Jan Olieslagers]

Patowalker: <<blushing>> Don't like to mention this, but it seems like you might be not entirely wrong there. Think I may perhaps have clicked too modestly.

Edit @LH2: thanks for supporting me, PatoWalker's reading was deplorably correct.

[LH2]

I was going to say that I can't see how the flying schools are going to cope with this, but I just noticed that there is a separate schedule for "school and training flights", which is exactly what every private GA movement is going to become from now on :E

In the long term, I expect GA is going to move to private airfields, and airports not managed by AENA, e.g., LEDA, LECD, LESO.

[IO540]

I don't know if I have mis-read it but the following airports still remain accessible to GA visitors

Bilbao, Fuerteventura, Girona, Ibiza, Lanzarote, Menorca, Santiago, Sevilla,
Tenerife Norte y Valencia Almería, Asturias, Coruña, Granada-Jaén, Jerez, La Palma, Murcia, Reus, Santander, Vigo y Zaragoza, Albacete, Algeciras, Badajoz, Burgos, Ceuta, Córdoba, Cuatro Vientos, Hierro, Huesca, La Gomera, León, Logroño, Melilla, Sabadell, Salamanca, San Sebastián, Son Bonet, Pamplona, Torrejón, Vitoria, Valladolid.

(though PPL training is going to cost a lot more there) and the ones which have gone bonkers are

Madrid-Barajas, Barcelona, Alicante, Gran Canaria, Tenerife Sur, Málaga, Palma de Mallorca

It's a pity. It looks like the European big-airport managers have all got together to compare notes...

[blackboard]

Io-540,

I may be biased because Alicante is one of my usual destinations, but I still think that accessibility is relative. Two main reasons:

1) Even if total amount at some of the airports you mention is relatively low, an increase of 200% is not.

2) It cannot be fair that a 10-ton airplane is charged the same as a 1-ton one.

3) There are additional GA deterrents at AENA airports like increasing mandatory handling (LEMH with an empty apron in winter!), PPR due to parking space (even though there is plenty!(i.e, LESO and LELC)), slots and so on. Landing fees just pile up on it.



On the other hand, despite searching, I havent found a way of attaching files in the forum. Is there one?

[IO540]

No, you can't.

All you can do is post image URLs (jpegs etc) using the icon showing the picture of the mountain. The actual images are stored on the URL server.

General URLs (e.g. of an AENA PDFs) can be included using the icon showing the chain link with the round blob above it. I see you have sussed this already.

Most forums do not allow the forum server itself to store binaries, due to the size. These (files, images, etc) can be referenced by URL but need to be stored elsewhere. Pics can be stored on Photobucket, for example. For files there are various 'free' repositories on the internet, but I don't think any of them keep the stuff for long.

[WishesToFly]

If you are flying to Palma de Mallorca, just a few miles west of Son Sant Juan (LEPA) you have Son Bonet Aerodrome (LESB) which is GA only. Surely this would achieve considerable cheaper landing fees despite being so close to Son Sant Juan.

[172driver]

(though PPL training is going to cost a lot more there

Nope. There's a separate table detailing the - much lower - costs for training flights. So, guess what a huge proportion of Spanish GA now will become....;)

[blackboard]

I am not so sure the minimum does not apply to training flights...

[172driver]

I am not so sure the minimum does not apply to training flights...

The AENA doc doesn't say anything about that. What it does say is that a multiplier will be applied if doing T&G's or simulated ILS approaches. Guess, that's fair enough (it's not huge - x2 - for spamcans, anyway).