From a 2018 post on LFRD:
Dinard (LFRD) has recently changed to O/R PN24 required. This is advised by notam. This is just another nail in the coffin for pilots flying from the UK.
Been there today. 24hr on weekdays, 48hr on weekends, However this is no longer a “suspension of schengen”
The airport is however dead as a graveyard. Well, not as dead as another 24/48hr airport nearby – Cherbourg. No commercial flights at all. It has all the gear for 737s etc but it is just collecting dust. The terminal is locked up. You land, walk to the C door where the police stamp your passport, then you walk to the fireman’s hut where you pay the €22, then you walk back to the GA gate, having photographed the door code so you can get back in.
A little bit of GA, most notably a bizjet, a TBM and my TB20 
The weekend 48hr PN will keep Brits out pretty well. They were a major customer at Cherbourg, too. I asked the police why the 48hr and they just said (very politely) that they need that notice to turn up.
A group of us had a great meet-up. I will post some pics later.
A great resource in GA.
But 48hr PN is really more than that, as you really do need to be deciding on a trip by tues/wed.
You need time to be sure to sort your aircraft, pax and timings, suitably well to then send the request.
If you were to discuss it over a beer on Thursday evening you’re already knackered.
This was a little meet-up several of us did.
I had not been to Dinard since 2013 so this was worth doing. And actually I saw a very different part of the area this time around.
Due to potential heavy fines or prison in France for not doing the PN you really do want to get a confirmation from French police that they got the PN! I got mine next day but another pilot had to wait longer. This is a ridiculously bad system and I wonder how it hangs together legally. In the UK you could never set up such a scheme. Traditionally, airport police everywhere do not communicate by email… most can’t speak English, and in the case of Dinard the airport staff would not check with the police on our behalf. The Dinard police number (in the AIP) would hang up if they got a phone call in English so if you want to check the PN receipt with a call you need a French speaker.
The flight was filed at FL60 BOGNA DCT ADLOG DCT MP DCT ORVAL. The problem, which only UK regulars will know, is that while this is in CAS (base 5000ft) the IFR authority, London Control, won’t touch FL060 traffic with a bargepole (except possibly EXAMxx flights) so this had to be flown as a “VFR” flight i.e. no clearance in UK airspace! No problem… Class G hacking, VFR in IMC etc, is SOP here So it was flown initially at 5000ft; CAS base 5500ft, until France who gave me the ex-Eurocontrol IFR squawk and asked for a climb to the filed FL060.
One issue is the D037… danger areas. The Eurocontrol routings go straight through these, most of the time! Recently their ceiling was lowered to FL100 but this was no help today. I could not get any reply from Plymouth Mil the day before (Friday!) so this time got airborne and called up London Info. They confirmed they were inactive and of course I got it on my mp3 recorder
The airport is nice and easy. Good ATC. Got the RNP35 approach.
Practically deserted; commercial flights (used to be lots of Ryanair) ended 2-3 years ago. The main terminal is all locked up. The place looks like time has stood still for decades
You visit the ( C ) door to see the police (if needed), then walk along to the fire station and pay the man in the hut, then walk back and exit through the GA gate, noting the number for returning.
The big issue for non schengen traffic is 24hr PN or 48hr PN for weekend trips, for both arrival and departure. However this is becoming common in France (due to some bizzare police politics, I guess) so the once-big UK business at these N French airports has almost disappeared. And they clearly feel it. The costs have been cut everywhere. Doors locked… Fortunately the tarmac will last for decades.
We went to St Malo. Very scenic although it was pretty crowded. Nice beach; also crowded. Nice restaurants. Ours was very expensive so wasn’t crowded at all
On the way back, through the coded gate, back to the police for the passport stamp
Omnidirectional departure to MINQI. Filed route was MINQI DCT UVSUV VFR DCT EGKA. FL060.
At the airspace border, a handover to “London 124.6” which again regulars will know is a silent termination of your clearance The CAS base there is FL075 so I stayed at 060 for a bit and then descended all the way to the 2200ft IAF for EGKA RNP20. French ATC was totally chilled as usual, and in UK airspace nobody cares so I didn’t bother with 124.6 and stayed with a listening watch. The bit through Jersey airspace was with Jersey who gave me another squawk and a “cleared to transit CAS” which is so ridiculous since this was a Eurocontrol IFR flight! There are just so many ways to get busted in “UK” airspace… and I bet many foreigners do, but the CAA doesn’t go after them because it would look so ridiculous.
Nowadays I am flying with Foreflight which shows a nice profile with the DAs and CAS and ATZs so busting should be a less likely event.
Roughly 1hr each way.
Outbound:
Return:
A great trip! A pity about the 48hr PN which strongly suppresses traffic and makes it hard to organise a meet-up there. But not as bad as the totally mad La Rochelle with its 48hr PN for all foreign flights (thus disregarding schengen).
Maybe you found the airport terminal a bit deserted because it was a bank holiday here with people also taking the bridge.
The terminal was apparently permanently locked up – since the commercial traffic ended.
There used to be a lot of Ryanair traffic but that ended with CV19.
gallois wrote:
Maybe you found the airport terminal a bit deserted because it was a bank holiday here with people also taking the bridge.
No, the taxi driver confirmed. The terminal is “closed”. Furthermore, the “Douane” entrance gives access to toilets that were previously part of the terminal / baggage reclaim area, but partitions have been installed to cut off access.
Not sure since when Dinard was an active airfield? it’s always deserted and empty, you have to walk to see à fireman who sit halfway of the runway in a small box before going back to the terminal for exit, when you want to enter you are lucky to find someone (there was a lady who looks like Lara Croft who will opens the small GA door if you show your licence)
I am sure this is online but Ryanair used it in 2013 (I saw it) and – according to the taxi driver – until the lockdowns. Then they did not come back.
AIUI the Ryanair model was to pay no landing fees and to get paid by the local chamber of commerce. This part was declared illegal by Brussels and I don’t know what the actual outcome was but Ryanair pulled out of the less lucrative airports. I did a search and found something suggesting Easyjet might start in July but Skyscanner does not show it. Anyway the airport is all shut up and seems to have given up.
Even at my advanced age I would notice someone looking like Lara Croft 
There was nobody apart from the police (who say they turn up only on the PN) and the fire crew. Well, there seems to be one man who answers emails.
Dinard used to have quite a bit of Ryanair traffic which I used several times when living in London, last time 10 years ago. No idea when they stopped flying that route.
Dinard had a regular Ryanair service to Stansted. I used it several times before they started services further south. There was also regular services by a company ,whose name I forget now bit I think it began with an “A”, to various of the Channel Islands. But things have changed a lot over the last few years. Whether it is CAT taking the opportunity to rationalise their business after Covid, I don’t know.
