Well, I managed to interest myself in this subject, and snooped around:

First, a fully loaded 747-400 weighs in a 875,000 lbs (roughly 400,000 kg), and can carry 57,000 gals (213,000 l) of fuel.

Looking at the YVR lading fee chart, it does indeed seem that the landing fee itself is but the tip of the iceberg (about $2400 of the $8000 or so needed to land, park and deplane our hypothetical 747).

What sparked my interest in this whole issue was the fact that AC is paying almost as much in landing fees et al as for fuel. I had always been under the impression that an airline's greatest cost items were salaries, airplanes and fuel (which, it turns out, is true), and everything else didn't add up to a whole lot (bzzt! wrong answer!).

I got a hold of UAL's latest anual report and came up with the following:

For 1999, UA took in about $18 billion. Of this, $5.7 b went for salaries, $1.8 b for fuel and $0.95 b for "landing fees and other rent" (maintenance accounts for only $ 0.67 b, and I assume UA performs 100% of their maintenance).

The ratio of landing fees to fuel is significantly lower for UA than for AC. Some of this is certainly due to landing fees probably being higher in Canada than the US (I'm guessing here, don't have any numbers), and average stage length longer for UA than AC (reduces number of landings per aircraft per day).

Re: Price of fuel, the same UA annual reports lists average fuel price as $0.70 per gallon in 1997 and $0.58 per gallon in 1999. Prices this year are more than likely higher than the 1997 number.

I am interested in finding out what the landing fee to fuel ratio is for other airlines. I'll post anything I come up with.