Landing Fees and Gate

[joefremont]

Landing fees are charged when an aircraft transits through an airport and cover a number of expenses including the actual landing, gate fees, baggage handling and more. The fee is calculated based on the airport size and the max landing weight (MLW) of the aircraft. Half of the fee is applied to the arriving flight and the other half is applied to the departing flight. The fees are calculated as follows:

Super Airport Per 1000kg: 16v$ Minimum: 400v$
International Per 1000kg: 12v$ Minimum: 200v$
Intercontinental Per 1000kg: 8v$ Minimum: 100v$
Regional Per 1000kg: 6v$ Minimum: 50v$
Municipal (and others) Per 1000kg: 4v$ Minimum: 25v$

The landing fee for single engine aircraft with MLW of 2500 kg or less pay half of that and you can get a 10% discount if your airline has an office, warehouse or maintenance center at the airport. These fees are added to the expenses of the flight before any multiplier is applied.

You can reduce the landing fee by as much as 50% by leasing gates at the airport. You can lease a gate from the fleet section of your Virtual Airline on the website. While the aircraft is 'owned' a single fleet in your VA you can allow aircraft from other fleets or your partner airlines to use the gate as well, you can set it so some portion of the money they save is paid back to the owning fleet, up to 25% of the total landing fee, or you can set it so other fleets or partners may not use the gate at all. The money received is multiplied by the lower of the multiplier for the flight or the multiplier of the airline operating the gate. The reduction in the landing fee is always on the departing flight, the arriving flight pays the normal fee.

A gate can handle a number of flights per day based on the multiplier of the flights. When a flight arrives the system calculates the number of arrivals that have used the gate in the last 24 hours and compares that to the calculated limit, the the number of flight is less than the calculated limit the aircraft uses the gate. The formula use to calculate the limit is 24 divided by the cube root of the multiplier, rounded up. So if the airline is using a 1000x multiplier then a gate can handle 3 flights a day, at 500x 4 flights a day, at 100x 6 per day, 25x 9 flights per day. To keep things simple we don't care when the flight leaves, as long as the gate used is still active.

When you lease a gate you enter the following information.

Fleet: The fleet that 'owns' the gate and pays the rental fee.
Location: The location of the gate, this is a dropdown list of airports based on departing flights in your route structure, these are sorted based on the number of departing flights.
Gate Size: The maximum size aircraft that can use this gate, based on DOW.
Name: (optional) a name you want to give it.
Minimum aircraft size (DOW): This sets a minimum size for aircraft that can use the gate.
Rate other fleets: This is a value from 0-25% where the money saved, or 'now allowed' of other fleets are not allowed to use the gate.
Rate partner airlines: This is a value from 0-25% where the money saved, or 'now allowed' of other fleets are not allowed to use the gate.

The rent paid for the gate is based on the maximum size aircraft that can use the gate, multiplied by the landing fee of the airport (per 1000kg) divided by 10.

Municipal airport the rent per month would be:

GA Small 3,200
Small 12,800
Medium 28,800
Large 64,800
Extra Large 115,200

Regional:

GA Small 4,800
Small 19,200
Medium 43,200
Large 97,200
Extra Large 172,800

Intercontinental:

GA Small 6,400
Small 25,600
Medium 57,600
Large 129,600
Extra Large 230,400

International:

GA Small 9,600
Small 38,400
Medium 86,400
Large 194,400
Extra Large 345,600

Super Airport

GA Small 12,800
Small 51,200
Medium 115,200
Large 259,200
Extra Large 460,800

There is no limit to the number of gates an airline may lease but you need to do your math to determine if your going actually save money. If you fly into an airport once a month, your going to lose money. If you fly in several times a day you will defiantly save money, but you need to do your math.

When an aircraft arrives the system will check the gates that have not yet reached there daily limit and select from the available gates selecting from gates that are from the same fleet first, then other fleets and then partner airlines. From each group it will select the smallest gate that the aircraft can use.