Wed Nov 05, 2014 8:30 am
#1326402
G-BLEW wrote:I don't think it's just a UK thing, I have rented from quite a few places in the US and some make it very difficult to give them money too.
Ian
I agree Ian, the US experience I've had is mixed and the US industry also has it worries about attracting people to GA, but they start from a very different point. You can fly a G1000 C172 for, say, £100/hr and fly all year to great hard-runway IFR airports near your destination and pay little more than the odd modest ramp fee. GA has less need to sell itself on the customer experience, because the fundamentals are so much more positive. Your "hassle/misery" per £1000 spent involves never hearing the words "PPR", never wearing a HiVis jacket, paying the same low amount for Avgas as people pay for Jet fuel instead of 3x as much, airports which are part of the transport infrastructure so open 24/7 the way roads and ports are, the list is endless
We always read about the miseries 3rd parties impose on the GA industry. Yes, it's true. EASA and the CAA impose cost and bureaucracy. Nimbies impose noise and operating challenges. Avgas is horribly expensive. Airport owners want to close and redevelop.
But, ultimately, you know who pays for this? It's the customer. And the GA industry is pretty mediocre in how it treats its customers. This doesn't matter so much to us as enthusiasts, and some will prefer a "grass roots" ethos to a more "consumer" one. Fair enough. But if the question is about attracting people into GA, the industry has a problem that the experience it provides is pretty well designed to discourage people who can afford its services.
Last edited by 421C on Wed Nov 05, 2014 9:34 am, edited 2 times in total.