You might never have thought about it, but airports charge airlines to park planes at the airport. That is just one of a whole host of fees that are charged for using the facilities, which are all passed on to passengers in one form or another.
Airports generally publish their fees online somewhere, so they are easy to access. After all, private planes use airports and you need to know how much money you’re going to be changed to be there.
How Much To Park Planes?
Aircraft parking is charged in increments and at Dublin Airport these are 15 minutes each. According to their fees and charges table, a widebody such as an Airbus A330, Boeing 787, Boeing 767, or Airbus A350 (to name but a few) costs €41.90 per quarter hour on a contact stand. These are the gates located at the terminal, which is where most airlines will want to park.
Narrowbody aircraft such as the Airbus A320 or Boeing 737 will get charged €33.50 per 15 minutes. That’s not all though. If those stands have an airbridge available (whether used or not) there is an additional €8.80 fee per quarter hour.
You can also park planes for free at Dublin Airport. No levy is charged if you are staying overnight between 23:00 and 06:00. Very handy if you’re overnighting an aircraft to operate the first services the next morning.
Other Airports
London Heathrow charges more, with a narrowbody costing £35.97 and a widebody £75.54. Edinburgh Airport charge by aircraft weight, with it being £0.105 per metric tonne or part thereof per 15 minutes.
Overall Thoughts
Now you know how much it costs to park planes at certain airports around the world. Since it’s all charged in 15 minute increments, someone is responsible for collating all this data for every flight so the billing can be done. Certainly not a simple task at all.
People who fly their own aircraft are generally quite well off and you can see why. Parking fees are expensive, you also need to pay landing fees, navigation charges and so on, even before you consider fuel and maintenance of the aircraft itself.
What do you think of these fees? Do you own a plane and if so, which is the most expensive aspect? Thank you for reading and if you have any comments or questions, please leave them below.
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Featured image by Red Charlie on Unsplash.
Planes at get by Vista Wei on Unsplash.
Air Canada by David Preston on Unsplash.
