Tue Apr 13, 2010 8:25 pm
#852295
Tall-Guy
For some reason (probably my finger trouble) I don't seem to able to send you a PM...it just goes straight to my Outbox.
That said, there's nothing I can't really post on the thread, so here goes...
Tall guy
Not sure what happened to the PM I sent last night?
I'm the Head of Operations at Gloucester so I was sorry to hear that you weren't 100% happy. I'd really like the opportunity to dig a bit deeper and find out where things went wrong, can you give me your callsign and approximate time of your visit?
My initial thoughts are: -
Saturday was our busiest day of the year so far, with over 450 movements. That's no excuse for poor service but does give an idea that things may have been a little fraught...
Did ATC ask you if you were refuelling? They'd normally give the Fire Crew (who are also the refuellers) a heads up, as a visitor taxies in...
Was the Scheduled Service in? If there was a Dornier parked next to the Terminal, the Fire Crew (who are also the refuellers...and baggage handlers...and security agents) would have been a bit stretched...
The refuellers need to enter details of your fuel uplift into their computer so that the girls in Reception can produce your invoice. Sometimes when it's busy, that can be a bit delayed...
The fuel price is £1.72 inc VAT. If your invoice came out differently, it's a mistake, which we're happy to correct ,of course.
I gather (albeit from the forum) that Shoreham is now charging £1.73 inc VAT for AVGAS. There was a huge hike (11ppl) in our wholesale price this month. It's industry wide and is as a result of the relatively limited volume in European production at present. The Duty also increased by 3.78ppl on 1st April. We chose to absorb the Duty increase but had to pass on the wholesale price. We took a decision last year to reduce our margin on fuel, cogniscent of the fact that the industry was in for a hard time. So far, all our flying schools have survived the recession and we've sold more fuel to visitors. We've generally been near the bottom of the forum league table, although smaller airfields with less volume throughput do tend to leapfrog us when they're selling older stock. We sell over half a million litres a year, so we always end up paying the 'current' monthly price.
The 3% credit card charge is passed on at cost. Most of our revenue is from account holders and the bank nails us to the floor with charges. Debit cards are free and the girls should have offered you the option.
We genuinely want everyone to go away from Glos with a smile and, more importantly, to come back!
I look forward to hearing from you, in the hope that we'll be able to turn your perception around.