RIP off Jet 1 Fuel at Haverfordwest

[Tailboom]

Landed at Haverfordwest yesterday for some Jet 1, in fairness they did tell me after I said I was inbound that I’d have to pay a call out fee as they don’t supply Jet 1 on the weekend but by that time I didn’t have much of a choice.
I Fuelled the 109 full filling the auxiliary too, went to pay the bill and just couldn’t believe how much, total bill £823.00 !!! , a massive £225.00 call out fee to the council plus a £50.00 landing fee, I found this call out charge amazing as the ground crew appeared within minutes, so I don’t know where they were called out from, not far is my guess as they had just fuelled another 109 in front of me who also had to pay the call out fee, what a rip off !
I’d wanted to fuel in Pembrey and had called them on route to Tenby for a Basic and to enquire about calling in for fuel, a few minutes after they had told me that they had Jet 1 they called me back to state that any fuel was cash only !!!!
It’s like living in the dark ages down here, like I’m just flying around with £800.00 cash in my pocket at any time, between Pembrey and Haverfordwest they don’t deserve any business

[FlyingHorse1]

Unfortunately I'm not surprised by the extra charges for weekends. From my experience of corporate FBOs weekend call out/supplement charges are common practice even if there are plenty of other aircraft around. The most I've heard for 150 litres of Jet was around £1300 with call out charges and Airport fees. However I have always been made aware of what charges I will be faced with before booking in. With regards to cash only I wouldn't deal with any aviation organisation that doesn't take card payments. Maybe the tax man will be interested in their operation!

[toptobottom]

I haven't been to EGFE for a few years, but last time I went, it had just installed a self-service jet pump, activated with a credit card?

[misterbonkers]

Supply and demand? Prior planning and preparation? It costs a lot of money to run airfields nowadays.

Yes it's expensive but at least the service was good! I've waited an hour at a large airport for fuel before now and had to pay the same if not more fees for the same privilege you got upon landing. At least the council are running the place such that of locals ever complain then they should be able to see it generates revenue and hence more likely to stay open

[helicopter-redeye]

Is that £225 per refuel?

[Tailboom]

Yes,£225.00 plus £50.00 landing fee, don’t get me wrong the guys there were very friendly and it’s not their fault but I just think it’s a bit steep

[jeepys]

Not disagreeing with you that it's a lot of money but this is aviation after all.
They are a great bunch at Haverfordwest but are council employees and cannot set the charges. I have used them several times over the last few years and always found them professional and happy to help.
Don't think that the council are making money out of you. It takes a lot more money to run that place than what comes in through the till.
Yes we can moan but we would be moaning more if there was no fuel in that part of the world.
Anyway, what are you doing flying on Saturday!

[rotorspeed]

Tailboom - did you try Swansea? I'm pretty sure they were open. Guessing you might have been roughly passing? And what was the actual fuel price/Litre at Haverfordwest?

[Tailboom]

Hi Jeepys totally agree with you, their a good bunch of guys and the lady who refuelled me, but to only sell Jet 1 Monday to Friday with a call out on weekends is crazy in this day and age
Rotorspeed I didn’t call into Swansea on the way down as they charge £150.00 to land which again I think is too much I don’t know the price of the Jet 1 per litre I forgot to ask and it didn’t show how much on the invoice, think I was still in shock at paying £275.00 inc a landing fee to pick up some fuel
Surely for an airport which is open over the weekend you’d expect it to offer Jet 1 as well as Avgas

[toptobottom]

I didn’t call into Swansea on the way down as they charge £150.00 to land


£150?!! Are you making this up?

[Tailboom]

Toptobottom a good reason not to call, these airports then wonder why nobody flies in, they charged me £70.00 once in a Enstrom 480

[Brilliant Stuff]

I use H’West, West Wales and Pembrey on a regular basis and the guys who you meet face to face are awesome and can never do enough for us.

That part of Wales is tricky from the point that there seems to be no enough business for them to remain open over weekends, except for Pembrey who is more or less open 24/7.

H’West is indeed run by the council and that is possibly why they are not cheap and not open at weekends except for the flying club. Sadly they are living under the threat of being closed down if they don’t earn enough.

West Wales also have flying club open at Weekends but I have never tried them at the weekend.

Pembrey as I said before are usually always open. Don’t know why they wouldn’t take card I am sure I have paid by card but I am mostly on account there. I will check with them next time I am in.

If we don’t use these airfields they will wither and die and most of them don’t deserve to.

Don’t forget you have also Lomas Helicopters over the water in Bideford.

I don’t use Swansea because they have let us down with lack of fuel repeatedly in the past. I am sure though one day they will come back to strength.

[toptobottom]

I regularly go to Llanbedr (EGFD) - very friendly airfield with a large and modern (self-service, takes all credit cards) Jet-A1 bowser. Never had an issue with supply, very reasonable fuel price and landing fees, plus fab views!

[tigerfish]

This is just another example of a Rip off Culture. OK I can reluctantly accept a call out fee for anti social hours, But at a weekend, during normal hours, why so high? Then on top comes a landing fee! Do they expect you you hover whilst refuelling? - No of course not, so why not a reasonable combined charge for both? I operated an emergency services helicopter and had agreed reasonable costs on both, but even then I got severe indigestion when the bills came in. I understand that airfields have to cover costs, but common guys don't kill the goose!

TF

[Tailboom]

Guys it was obviously my fault for not making sure that I could get Jet 1, and in fairness they did tell me when I was inbound, but I took for granted that an airfield that was open and selling Avgas would also be selling Jet 1 !!! I also thought that ok I’d have to pay a call out, I thought it might have been £75.00 / £100.00 but that would be the price of poor planning on my part, but £225.00, come on who decided on that figure, I’d like to have been in that meeting!!!!!! Just madness

[Heathrow Harry]

Think about it - at least two guys and a truck - even if they were on a zero hours contract that's a minimum of a couple of hours man-time plus the truck to pay for

I don't know what you pay but any emergency service I use (plumber, electrician, dental, garage mechanic) is north of £ 50 an hour on weekdays these days

It's not as if the truck is in use 24/7 either - you may have been the only one for a couple of hours or longer - and it still has to be paid for, maintained and certified

The Council would be massacred if they were subsidising this - especially as you don't have a long term agreement with them

What's the charge-out rate on the 109?

[nigelh]

If there was another airport you could go to and it was just say 10 nm away it would take approx 5 min flight ( even in 109 as an average ) plus maybe 2 min manoeuvring to pad . So that is approx 25% of 1 hr for a return trip . @ £750 ph that is nearly £200 in cost to go to an alternative just 10 miles away !
My wife always says to me ..” don’t whinge about the cost of things with a Helicoper...... you will get NO sympathy!!!!”

[Sky blue and black]

The local council tax went up 12.5% this year, it has a £16 million pound funding gap.

[John R81]

They are not going to bridge that funding gap this way; more likely they will depress traffic and make the cash issue worse. Better to attract volume.

Reading this thread today, I did add them to my list of "avoid unless absolutely essential".

[Helinut]

A bit of background here from a retired Helinut who lives locally at present. The council run this airfield at a thumping loss. Because of the limited traffic, the lack of people, the inflexible CAA rules and that they employ their own staff, with all the costs of LA employees. Given the current financial climate, I tentatively suggest we need to be grateful they have not closed it down.

You could, of course, run a non-licensed fuel stop purely for heles for much less, but that is not an airfield

Not much competition out here. If there was, I doubt the LA would keep running FE

IMO, it is run very well, operationally

[John R81]

Helinut

As you note, once into the hands of a LA, it becomes expensive and in a perfectly predictable response GA stays away. Either the LA continues to fund the loss-making venture - or it closes.

It doesn't have to be that way. If they had a "business" plan (i.e. an actual plan that will bring the airfield up to being a "business") then it has a chance to contribute to the LA coffers. Sadly that rarely happens.

Anyway, as I said, at those prices I have made my choice. I wish nothing but "Good Luck" to those like yourself interested in trying to save the place.

[Brilliant Stuff]

Right spoke to Pembrey and of course they take Credit Card, so everyone go and use Pembrey. I hasten to add I have no ties to Pembrey except for a satisfied repeat customer who knows there are not many refuel opportunities in Wales and we have to look after the ones we have.

[Tailboom]

Brilliant Stuff, I would have used Pembrey but they called me back a few minutes after I called them to inform me it was cash only, if they hadn’t I would have gone in.
Heathrow Harry I hear what you say but the refuelers were all ready there, they had literally just finished refuelling another 109 who had also had to pay a call out fee, I just think it was a little greedy.
On another note ( it must be me ) wanted to refuel this week in Cardiff Tremorfa Heliport, they told me that they had a flight in that wasn’t leaving until 11pm so they would be able to accommodate me but wanted £120.00 for an after hours landing plus a landing fee, I declined and went else where,
i just don’t get it surely if you are already on site why charge £120.00, why not just let you come in and spend over £400.00 on fuel, if I was running it that’s what I would do.
i must say that the Heliport and the people who work there are great and much much better than the previous operators, but I just fail to see why charge when your already there.

[chopjock]

If it was me and I was already "in", I would offer to split the out of hours charge between the two... (But I can see why they try it on though).

[homonculus]

But that is the problem - there is a perception the suppliers are trying it on. No industry providing a mainly discretionary service can survive if they rip people off. The result is that industry contracts, there is less revenue and so the rip offs increase.

If these people had any sense they would put a credit card machine on the pump the same as most garages and then there would be no excuse for these additional charges. They might find they sell more fuel.

Of course, it isnt universal. A few months ago, night training at Denham, we were mulling over a final flight that might have taken us beyond closing time when, without prompting, we were told there would be no charge if it was only 15 minutes or so. That attitude may contribute to the fact that Denham is often busy when other fields are dead......

[nigelh]

Why can’t you go into Denham out of hours ?

[levo]

BANDITS GOV again after you £

[OvertHawk]

Why can’t you go into Denham out of hours ?

You can use Denham after the airfield has closed and is un-manned but only if you have an approval from them. You can't train - which is what homunculus was apparently doing at the time.

[nigelh]

Ok .. get it .

[homonculus]

And as the field would have been closed and we were doing night training it would have been rather dark with no lights. :ok:

[nellycopter]

If there was another airport you could go to and it was just say 10 nm away it would take approx 5 min flight ( even in 109 as an average ) plus maybe 2 min manoeuvring to pad . So that is approx 25% of 1 hr for a return trip . @ £750 ph that is nearly £200 in cost to go to an alternative just 10 miles away !
My wife always says to me ..” don’t whinge about the cost of things with a Helicoper...... you will get NO sympathy!!!!”

LMAO Nigel ..... exactly what my wife says to me ... must be a Yorkshire thing ......