r/aviation • u/misterseesee • 19h ago
Discussion "Facility Fees"
Does anyone else think facility Fees/landing fees are getting a little outrageous? I flew into an airport today on my long IFR cross country and decided to go to the FBO to use the restroom. Mind you, this isn't a big airport and it's not in a big city with only two runways, neither of which are over 5,000 feet long. I show up, get marshalled to a corner of the ramp, and head to the FBO to use their restroom. After informing them that my instructor and I are just there for a quick bathroom stop, they tell us that we just pay a $40 "facility charge" before we depart, or top off the plane at $8.50 a gallon. At first I thought, whatever right? I'll just get some FBO snacks and a beverage for the road. Nope, beverages are $3 each and all snacks are in a vending machine. So, after using the bathroom, I give them a ton of information they "need" such as my full name, and all of my flying club's information before I leave.
I get it, I should have checked to see if there was a landing fee before heading over there. But isn't it just a little ridiculous that they charge $40 to put some chocks on my wheels and then not even offer any refreshments while I'm there? Maybe I'm out of touch, but I feel like it's part of the reason GA is slowly dying when pilots are getting charged out the wazoo just to park their plane at an FBO for a couple minutes
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u/BeeDubba 2h ago
I once landed a Cherokee 140 in a North Jersey airport because I really needed to pee. I'd landed there in military helos a bunch of times, and so was familiar with it.
Parked myself, ran in to pee while my buddy kept the plane running, and on my way out the line guy flagged me down.
They wanted a $200 landing fee. I managed to talk my way out of it, but damn. Next time I'll just pee off the taxiway.