Do France - Spain and Spain - France flights need to dep/arr at customs airfield?

chflyer wrote:

I know a lot of pilots in France and Germany fly back and forth cross-border between small airfields without any customs, only filing an FPL.

What is the situation between France and Spain? Is dep/arr from/to a customs airfield necessary in both countries? Are the following flights legal on only an FPL, as examples of the question?

France, Germany and Spain are all EU members, so customs is not involved. (They are also all in Schengen, so immigration is also not needed.) A flight plan will suffice.

I wonder if chflyer meant something else, because – I know him – he obviously knows the above.

There is stuff like this and indeed Greece disregards everything anyway and needs a Port of Entry airport (LGKC is the one exception) and LFBH has been doing funny business, etc, but in general the answer to the thread name is No because both countries are EU and Schengen.

There is also this.

On the French side, I have it in writing from the central national French “ask the customs a question” contact point that no customs or immigration PNR or PPR is necessary, if:

• all other obligations are adhered to (most notably FPL 1h in advance)
• only goods in free circulation (such as anything bought within the EU or anything previously imported into the EU, including things imported without declaration under the “small value” exemption), or already temporarily admitted within the EU (such as personal effects of non-EU travellers that previously entered through a customs entry point) are carried
• less than 10 000 EUR in cash or cash equivalents are carried
• all crew and PAX are EU citizens

I don’t think the last point has any legal basis, but I didn’t push it. I stress that:

• the above is valid even in cases where France has reintroduced intra-Schengen border check; in that case, it is the public servant’s problem to intercept you from wherever you are departing (including any non-customs aerodrome or ULM base or “farm strip”) before your departure to perform the check his employer (the state) tells him to perform. It does not create for you an obligation to depart from a Schengen border crossing point or customs entry point.
• the customs can perform a customs check more or less anywhere anytime; if they do show up, you must collaborate with their check
• if you leave (or come from outside) the EU’s VAT area (such as e.g. flying to the African parts of Spain, Ceuta and Melilla) then you must undergo the same customs procedure as when leaving/entering the EU’s customs area.

In practice, most/many customs airports in the south-west of France have in their AIP a PPR/PNR for international flights; to avoid disputes with “people carrying firearms” it is most prudent to follow these PPR/PNR for these airports. Or just use an airport that is not a customs airport and won’t have that PPR/PNR in the AIP. Still in practice, I had the following situations:

• The AIP didn’t have a PPR/PNR for international flights per se, but had a PPR/PNR for customs. I didn’t do any PNR/PPR. On arrival an airport employee came to the plane to tell my I should have done it and he cannot let me exit the aerodrome before the customs come. I showed him the AIP and that it didn’t say to do a customs PPR/PNR for intra-Schengen intra-EU fIights. I asked him to phone customs, and ask them whether I am to be held under administrative restriction or if I have immediate freedom of movement and I can go into town. I told him I would peacefully wait for customs if customs clearly asserted some legal right to restrict my movements. He called them, told them “the pilot showed me the AIP, it says PNR/PPR for customs, but doesn’t say one must do a customs PNR/PPR for intra-EU intra-Schengen flights. Do I open the door to landside for him or not?”. The answer was “open the door”, they didn’t even ask to speak to me and take a deposition over the phone.
• I was flying from France to Melilla, so I actually needed to do the customs procedure. The AIP said to do PNR via airport OPS, I did. No customs came. I asked airport OPS confirmation that they did do the customs PNR, they answered “no customs needed to go to Spain”. I answered “I’m leaving the EU’s VAT area and am thus subject to corresponding border crossing procedures. Did you, or did you not, inform customs of my departure?” They confirmed that they did, and I went on my way.
• The airport had PNR/PPR for customs. I didn’t do any. They intercepted me at the door to landside, brought me to their office, took my oral declaration and performed a search of my bags.

From personal experience: we did such flights e.g. between LECI, LEMU, LEMT, LEFM, LEGY and LECI on the Spanish side and LFDJ, LFDH, LFFK, LFDM and LFBA on the French side back and forth (and probably quite a few more). I never thought of doing anything but filing a flight plan and was never asked any questions.

Same experience as terbang. During the last 6 years did various flights from ZZZZ fields in Spain to France (both custom and non-customs fields) and vice versa, no questions asked.

The only issue I had is flying from LESB to LFSB. The Spanish won’t allow to file that because they consider it a Swiss airport, go figure. I have heard of people then filing for nearby Habsheim and then deviate to LFSB

same same 😉