Handling charges
 

Forgive me if this has already been done in the past, I'm sure it has, but very recently an aircraft was handled at a London Military Airport.The compulsary handling agent charged £30.00 administration fee for the catering, this consisted of walking out to the aircraft with a tray of catering (not provided by the handling agent I might add). A £12.00 charge was also made for the Newspaper selection, these were The Herald tribune £1.50, Wall Street Journal £1.50, FT £1.00 Times 65p, Metro free and the Telegraph 70p. That adds up to £5.35 leaving a mark up of £6.65 (maths class finished). I realise that you have to take into account delivery etc. but when you appear to have a closed shop with compulsary handling.....monopoly???.
Of course the answer is to get the papers elswhere, but if the schedule precludes this your stuck. I apologise if this seems a bit trivial but I get fed up with Biz Jets getting ripped off.
Rant over.

Cry me a river. There's a catering company round these parts that charge you £50 for delivery - but then deliver to 3-4 aircraft at once. £200 up before you consider the margin on the food...i'm in the wrong business :}

Ooooh, good. A rant thread.

Olbia. Land of the 50 Euro lemon.

how about ...£1725 for handling without catering and not including the £1100 parking fee at a certain london airport ..

sure glad im not paying!

Don't use Northolt ! Always check ahead what any charges to expect, to be sure this is good Flt Dept management is it not ? If you,or your Ops/Commercial folks hadn't checked, then deduct from their pay check (or yours if it was you):ugh:

Quite agree Merlin, we do know the charges and they get passed on accordingly and we always try and avoid Northolt at all costs but when the client wants it, our hands are tied. My point was that it's a shame to be 'ripped off' on our own soil by a handler who would appear to be abusing the mandatory handling rule when no other handler is available.

An old tradition, the ripping off.

Regarding the newspapers I have found out that a lot of handlers seem to have an agreement with the news stand owners, they like to deliver yesterdays papers at a premium. But then it seems to be my fault cause I did not say "TODAYS NEWSPAPERS" please... being fed up and walking to the news stand myself I sure enough find todays papers tucked under the old ones. Happend often to me in France, Italy or Spain...

At least one gets a bit of service at Northolt or the like. Looking East is where I get really angry - the worst imaginable service plus the highest fees.

Like Ust-Kamenogorsk, where the 'Handling' agent does not bother to translate at imigration, leaving it to me to explain the officers that crew does not need visas (thank god I have feet and hands to explain with!) and simply does nothing at all - except eat out at the Hotel at our expense.
Without our companies secretary in Alma Aty I´d probably be still there...

Then the bill arrives and adds up to sumthin around 3000 quid....probably a years wage at Ust-Kamenogorsk in Kasachstan...

Thats why I love all the guys in management that tell me my wage is to high.

What I also love is the introduction of the 'infrastructure fees' at certain airports like Cologne - they argued about having to have freight/baggage handlers belts, CatIII etcetc. When I told them that we don´t need all of that crap they simply did not bother to answer any more.


I want a monopoly too. Must be great to be NOT on the receiving end of one.

Northolt
 

Apologies, but my last post was incorrect, according to the RAF, handling is not compulsary at Northolt. Passengers have to be screened by the Jet Centre at a cost of around £70.00 but if they are just wanting to go straight to the aircraft then NJC handling is not required so no other charges should apply. We shall see.

That is so. I have been there many times without using handling.

Just be prepared not to receive any help from the staff by the door if you need it, but I never had any problems.

MM

I have said for years that if I ever lose my medical I will start a handling agent. It has to be the easiest job in aviation for the best money.
In fact why am I waiting to lose my medical? I could do it now! :confused:
So where is the best place to have an agent that needs one and where there is either none or such a bad one I can put him out of business?
Nice? Yes obviously but with the French being French, not a chance!
Northolt? My hair is too long!
Biggin? Too political.

I have some ideas actually. Any suggestions?

Kelly Hopper, how about LCY? I've just been told by them that they also charge £30 to 'walk' the catering out and their charge for 4, yes 4 papers is £20.:bored:
Can I work for you??

Why don't you try Vnukovo? Its' about time that there is a decent handling agent...

Dont let the person who brings the papers and food out to the aircraft stand next to your craft to long. - as you will probley get charged peek time parking fees for that person to stand on the apron for a few mins.
London City = ££££££££££££££££££ god help us in 2012 , they will bend us right over

Hey folks
 

Here is a little background to the fees at a 'certain London Airport' with a short runway, the only way to keep the Airport open to Business Aviation is to charge Airline fees for everything and justify the use of the space, if the handler were not profitable then the business case for building new stands over the dock at £30 million for the Airlines could not be made and the concrete used for BIZ AV would become Airline stands (agreed this would be post credit crunch)
And before you ask no I dont work for the AIrport!
Just think of the big picture a little.
TMAB

Well, Northolt and London City handling are done by the same outfit, which partly explains why the costs are so steep at both. Next time we go to Northolt we're going to experiment with just using the RAF. The RAF fees for using the place are pretty extreme, so if you add on handling by the Northolt Jet Centre as well, you are talking one big bill ! Its not like the pax lounge is that nice anyway.

Handling Charges

Most operators get pretty annoyed by high charges for poor service but are happy to pay reasonable prices for good service. This is a point to watchout for: when the airport landing and parking fees are included on your handling bill check that the airport charges are as published by the Airport Authority. Some handling agents charge more than published but do not tell you and there is no indication of this on the bill. When one goes into London's main airport and has to pay £1,500 for landing and parking, to pay an extra 15% for the priviledge of just paying it to the handling agent is pretty galling. Just say you will pay direct to the Airport Authority, they will eventually send you a bill. Although the handling agent will probably say you HAVE to pay the airport charges to them this is NOT the case.
Other places (like Munich) show a 10% disbursement of landing fees on their bill, but the landing fee office is just next door so just take an extra few minutes to pay the airport direct.
Let's have some feed back on this thread about other airports and ways to keep the charges down. Let's face it we are the customers and I feel that some organisations use us as cash cows.
The one thing we can all help each other with is tips and pointers about using certain airports WITHOUT the use of a handling agent. We go to Africa a lot and apart from the obvious exceptions (Lagos!) we do not use a handling agent, I cannot see the point of being presented with a bill for $2,000 when all he has done is write out a bill for $2,000!

Last time I used Northolt was at a weekend. I'll not make that mistake again. Landing/handling bill added up by the extremely pleasant young RAF lady only to find a 50% surcharge for coming in on a saturday! No warning....just there it is on the bill.....:eek:

Weekend/night time surcharges.

Why? and why do we put up with it? Because we do not make enough fuss, our trade organisations do nothing, but the main reason is that they can get away with it. I do not think the travelling public would accept a 50% surcharge on his air ticket for flying on a Saturday so why do we accept it. What is the reason for a surcharge, we are in a 24/7 industry?

65p for a Times? Bargain.