I just found this great picture of a plane landing on FRA, an airport which is extremely congested like most big European airports.
Last week, however, I took a flight to Memmingen, a very small airport in southern Germany (not too far from Neuschwanstein Castle for our US A.netters ). Our flight came from CGN, which traffic wise is somewhere in between, nowhere as busy as FRA, but in a completely different league than Memmingen, which gets 5-10 flights a day.
I would like to know from pilots, what do you prefer? I post this in Tech Ops because normally more pilots are in this forum. Is it more difficult to land on airports like FRA, is it less stressful to land on smaller airports, or is it in reality the other way around (Memmingen, for example, does not even have ILS yet)...
Airbuster From Netherlands, joined Mar 2007, 385 posts, RR: 1 Reply 1, posted (4 years 10 months 1 week 5 days 15 hours ago) and read 2660 times:
They both have their pros and cons,
Large airports in general have better ATC and facilitys wich i appreciate but they also have longer movement times getting to and from your stand, also the increased traffic does require some extra attention and they are also slot sensitive. Large airports require more operational planning on the pilots side.
Small airports are often lesser equipt but since youre the only one, all the attention is on you, wich also is very nice! And not flying the standard ils but a non precision or visual is very nice for a change.
In my opinion they both have charms and the mix is what makes it interesting!
I personally like flying into FRA, though the transition to the runway takes a lot of time wich is anoying, the ATC is great, and the germans know how to run an airport efficiently.
TheSonntag From Germany, joined Jun 2005, 3347 posts, RR: 30 Reply 2, posted (4 years 10 months 1 week 5 days 14 hours ago) and read 2637 times:
Thank you for your answer. This leads me to the next question, are there any big airports you absolutely don't like, and if so, why?
When I look at an airport like Memmingen with 5 airplanes a day, do they really have full ATC all the day (They are officially open from 6.00 to 22.00)? Pretty expensive, isn't it?
Airbuster From Netherlands, joined Mar 2007, 385 posts, RR: 1 Reply 3, posted (4 years 10 months 1 week 1 day 1 hour ago) and read 2378 times:
Sonntag,
Yes i actually dislike Manchester, because the taxiway system is a mess, the terminal is very old and the whole place has always got some kind of work in progress going on and a lot of traffic. But every airport has it's challenges and that's the way i see it. It keeps flying fun.
Now i won't mention the company i fly for but you can guess ofcourse, i fly out of the netherlands, and we do fly to 1 airport i know of in sweden where because of our early departure or late arrival we plan 2 alternate airports iso 1 in case of delays or early departure in case of no ATC. Also this airfield needs to upgrade the rescue and firefighting services on standby upon our arrival and departure. This i think does cost the airport some money, but we started operating 2 new daily flights to this place so it's big business for the entire region.
TheSonntag From Germany, joined Jun 2005, 3347 posts, RR: 30 Reply 4, posted (4 years 10 months 1 week 1 day ago) and read 2364 times:
Thanks for your great replies. From a passenger point of view, I find small airports exciting, like Karup in Denmark or HHN and Memmingen, all ex-airbases.
This strange cold-war feeling of those airbases is somehow very interesting, and the same applies to old east-german runways...
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From Germany, joined Jun 2005, 3347 posts, 
). Our flight came from CGN, which traffic wise is somewhere in between, nowhere as busy as FRA, but in a completely different league than Memmingen, which gets 5-10 flights a day.
From Netherlands, joined Mar 2007, 385 posts, 
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