Pilot reviews of Pembrey Airport

What a shame. Lovely situation. Friendly cafe with fun decor. But landing fee and nasty attitude at information puts me off returning

Visited Pembrey on Sunday 29th Oct

Weather was in our favour for once and clear trip though Wales and no landing issues at Pembrey. Danger areas closed on Sunday.

Help from Radio and on landing guided us to hard standing rather than grass.

Café was excellent,in fact first class.

Landing fee was £18 and great value for an airfield in such lovely surroundings.

Well worth a trip for anyone looking for a relaxed day and great food.

Flew into Pembrey on 12 July after checking out the OS maps for a decent walk for the greyhounds. The runway was in great condition, but fuel was not available – worth checking: for us it put us just on our limit for a return flight to Blackpool in a DR400. The landing fee of £16 was a bit on the high side, but they were happy to let us depart after normal closing time. (Which we didn’t need in the end). The café at the airfield is great and had a variety of food available. Obtained a slot number from Pembrey range beforehand – an easy call and they provided a traffic service inbound.

The walk was even better than we expected and we had pretty much a ‘no-traffic’ green lane all the way to the Pembrey Country Park which had both a great café and lovely scenery. Watching the Typhoons on the range was a bonus for me!

This could be a great destination. It has Kidwelly castle to the north, Camarthen to the east and is within walking distance of the beach.

However Pembrey's £18 landing fee is more expensive than that charged at both neighbouring airports, and furthermore the uplift of fuel at Haverfordwest allows the dismissal of the landing fee. Perhaps Pembrey's operator intends to keep the GA oommunity away, in which case they're probably successful.

Nice ground staff, and a nice location.

This was meant to be a day out in Wales, on the hottest day in the year. Did the prep for the flight, planned the route, checked for fields with cafe and fuel - flying from Sywell, we would need both! Got the Pooley's plates. Called the airfield on the published number and was told RWY 22, no weather, so all was good. Two hours later, did straight in approach for 22, landed and started admiring the beautiful setting. No other aircraft in sight, apart from a Piper from Gloucester that landed soon after us. We asked for fuel and the visit went downhill from that point on. No fuel - they run out. "You should have called". Well, I had, but whilst I did say we were coming from Sywell, I didn't explicitly ask about fuel (Pooley's state they have fuel). At this point, we knew we'd have to go back via Swansea.

Then to the landing fee- £18 ! The highest I've seen in a small airfield. What followed was a bit of a circus. They don't accept credit cards. Neither for landing fees, nor in the cafe. We didn't have much cash, and just managed to scrape the £18 for the landing fee, but none left for any food. The Piper guy didn't have any cash and wasn't allowed to defer payment. Instead, the cafe staff brought a card machine and were running around the field trying to find a spot... Not sure how his plight ended.

In the end, we paid the £18, for virtually no facilities. So disappointed.

If I were the owner/operator, I would have offered the visitors who found themselves in the situation a cup of tea for free! In fact, I would have made it myself. I would also have waived the landing fee. When you are so remote, you either guarantee the facilities you advertise, or you state clearly the conditions, i.e. cash only, and MAY have fuel. Or at least warn them when they call before the flight!

landed at pembrey in October. no A/G service or any service!! whether this was due to it being incredibly quiet that day I don't know.

A pilot got me as I transmitted and gave me info on circuits etc.. runway looked in poor condition and my landing fee which was supposed to be £12 was upped to £14 on landing! Would not rush back in a hurry which is a shame as it is a beautiful area.

Visited on a sunny November late Sunday afternoon. Easy to spot on near the coast, part of this old RAF base is used for car racing which is directly below you on final or takeoff. Nice to be in an area with few noise abatement problems or buildings to cause turbulence. Helpful A/G directed to parking and even sent a chap to escort us to the building. Reasonable landing fee of £12, excellent cafe with what appears to be very good lunchtime fare. We only had coffee/cafe, but the latte was very professionally made. Overall, a hassle free and easily accessible airfield close to stunning views of the Gower. Danger area inactive and absolutely no problem at the weekend, no PPR required - should be on everyone's list of popular destinations; the return flight up the Bristol Channel was good too.

So. £40 for two landings and overnight parking at Pembrey. I'm not some rich git, I'm just someone trying to run a plane and fly on a budget. This in my opinion was just greedy and somewhat arbitrary and plucked out of thin air. It's just taking advantage of someone perceived to be able to pay.

The crazy thing is, if I hadn't been ripped off or maybe even if I was offered some sort of deal for the weekend, I could have been a regular visitor there, and what with buying fuel and whatever would have been reasonable for landing and parking, they'd probably have made quite a lot from me over the summer. Now they've ensured I never go back there and that the £40 and whatever they made on the fuel is all they ever get from me.

It's annoying, as it's a lovely part of the world and I'd love to spend more time there, but I think I'll either fly to Swansea or drive up in future.

The airfield itself was easy to find and no problems with the Danger Area (shut on Saturday.) Runway in super condition - interesting to watch the race cars which are right under you on approach/takeoff as the track is on a disused part of the runway. As "petrol-heads" they clearly don't have a problem with aircraft!

Friendly has to be the word here. We wanted fuel and the airfield manager suggested we had our lunch whilst he arranged refuelling (all day breakfast - GREAT!) He finished the fuelling and brought the invoice to us in the cafe - no need to even go and find the office.

The scenery round about was stunning and the flight back up the coast will be remembered for a long time.

Highly recommended to anyone.

Meal in town really was a taste of (last of the summer wine) yesteryear but very good sunday lunch and cheap prices heard a good joke there "why are pirates called pirates ... because theyaaarrgh" well it is Wales! recommended!

And no one seemed to mind my little nephew bounding around the grass in the café patio area, shouting "UP!" at every aeroplane which passed.

The airport is leasing the restaurant to a catering establishment and they will be serving hot meals and saturday and sunday lunches

Be aware fuel not always avalible and credit cards not accepted so check and take cash also as mentionned before in danger area. That is closed from mid day friday to monday morning but check first.

Worth a visit if you want to see the motor racing etc.

For the automotively-minded, the motor racing circuit is just the other side of the boundary fence from the airfield and there's usually plenty going on there too.

The preferred local is the Butchers Arms in Pembrey village--make sure you find the pilot's comfy corner with the aeroplane pictures on the wall...

One for the weekend though--weekdays it's besieged by fast jets blowing things up on the beach.