Scone Airport landing fees up for discussion

[KRviator]

RecFlyers: I saw on FB that Upper Hunter Council has their new Operational Plan out for public comment, which incorporates the landing (and other) fee structure for Scone Airport - Pages 323 & 324 have the airport fees... Tell you what, you wouldn't want to be going there for a weekend! ~$25 landing fee and around $75 in parking if you stayed for 48 hours with an average bug-smasher.. $100 before you've spent a dollar in town I think is pretty pi$$ poor.

You might also care to note that Upper Hunter Council also provide - at no charge - 48 hours free camping for caravanners only a few minutes walk from the centre of town, complete with a dump point, for any Grey Nomads. Again, why is one lot of tourists actively supported with no-cost facilities yet others aren't?

For anyone that wants to put their two bob in, either email [email protected] or go via snail-mail to: General Manager, PO Box 208, Scone NSW 2337.

Here's what I'm submitting, so feel free to copy, paste and tweak it as required - but for fuxake please put something in to try to put a stop to these ongoing bloody fees. It only takes one Council to abolish landing fees for private fliers that'll in turn provide an example to others.

 

Quote

I am writing to oppose the proposed fee structure for Scone Memorial Airport, as contained in Council's proposed DPOP.

It is observed Council proposes to carry over casual landing and parking fees for visiting aircraft, with slight increases commensurate with inflation.

I cannot support landing or fees for light "general aviation" (GA) aircraft, that is, the type often owned and flown by visiting private pilots and that typically weigh less than 3,500Lbs / 1,500Kg. These aircraft would be subject to a landing fee in the $20-25 range for each landing in addition to a parking fee of approximately $75 should they spend two days in Scone before returning home leading to over $100 in "Council fees" just to visit town as a tourist.

It is noted Scone does not currently have metered parking for residents or visitors to town, not any toll or "entry fee" to town for visitors arriving by road, such as the 'Grey Nomads" in their 4-Tonne Landcruiser towing a 3.5-Tonne caravan, indeed Upper Hunter Shire Council even provides camping and sewage dump point facilities completely free of charge to these visitors, to encourage such tourists to the region, and I applaud Council for doing so.

However, your attention is drawn to commentary on pilots forums PPRuNe1 and RecreationalFlying2 where visiting pilots clearly state they actively avoid airports that charge a landing fee, either through being made to feel unwelcome when compared to caravanners, or finding 'better value' in visiting a town whose airport is free to use.

When viewed against airports such as Temora or Narromine, it is observed neither of these airports charge fees, yet both offer far superior facilities than that found at Scone, ie Temora has multiple runways, their Aviation Museum has child-friendly play areas, there is accommodation available on the airport for pilots and their passengers in addition to the Museum itself being superior to Hunter Warbirds in terms of facilities, physical size and the provision flying days, as well as the number and nature of aircraft on display. Narromine, like Temora, offers more flexibility in terms of runways, has both a gliding club and aero club on the field as well as an aviation museum and accommodation located on the airport.

When considering how we may attract visitors to both Hunter Warbirds or Scone itself, who naturally have a choice of what town they visit, it is noteworthy to consider that for a pilot taking off from Bankstown, Scone is 25 minutes closer than both Temora or Narromine (using a cruise speed of 140Knots), however, the addition of landing and parking fees renders Scone the more expensive town to visit, especially when one considers that once you land at Scone, there are few transport options into town, unless you are already aware of the taxi's operating hours, or Upper Hunter Rideshare, you will be forced to walk several km into town.

In short, the extension of landing and parking fees for visiting aircraft renders Scone Airport both uncompetitive in a financial sense, and unwelcoming in a tourist sense, to visiting recreational pilots and their passengers. However, it must be noted that I do not oppose, and in fact actively support, landing and parking fees for aircraft that are registered to a commercial entity, for they are using a Council asset in the course of their business and as such, should be expected to reimburse Council. But for aircraft below 3,500Lbs and registered to an individual, I urge Council to scrap the landing and parking fees as a way of attracting more visitors to the region. What little money Council would lose in landing fees from such an endeavour would be more than made up by the increase in income to local businesses.

In closing, I draw your attention to Cr R. Campbell's comments from the December 2020 Ordinary Council Meeting where he said emphatically stated "We want this airport to be used much much more in the future, and if we're going to just, just do it uh and then just think we haven't had a strike here since whatever it was we're looking back, let's look to the future, we want as many planes as can come in more planes in the future that's going to make it the usage of the airport much more worthwhile."

Abolishing landing fees for privately-owned GA aircraft would go a long way towards achieving this, with the attendant benefits for the town as a whole.

Sincerely,
The KRviator.

1. https://www.pprune.org/pacific-general-aviation-questions/646418-unfriendliest-airport-ga-australia.html
2. https://www.recreationalflying.com/topic/37859-recreational-aircraft-landing-fees-feedback-needed-please

 

Edited May 5, 2022 by KRviator

[spacesailor]

That makes good reading !,&  hopefully gives those councilors a chance to organize  more fly in days, to boost the towns popularity with this community.

spacesailor

[Old Koreelah]

Thanks for the info, KR. After they introduced landing fees at Scone, quite a bit of training traffic came to Quirindi. Now that we have landing fees, they haven’t been seen as much. Meanwhile, thousands of very expensive campers and caravans get free access to our council facilities.

 

And yes, I’ve sent them an email.