To get this back on topic:
The bottom line is that IMHO many/most people won’t fly to an airport which is “PN” unless they can get a confirmation/receipt. They may not say that openly but the uncertainly is too much of a hassle. The PN stuff is a fast spreading disease which is indirectly driving a lot of people to get out of flying.
And this receipt is not easy to get, especially as most of the employees processing this cannot speak a word of English.
Traditionally, “PN” stuff has been coordinated by the handler, who walks along the corridor, or calls the police in their language, and deals with it. That is how the bizjet community has always worked. And the pilots communicate only with the handler. But GA ritually doesn’t want to pay for handling (it can be very expensive) so they deal with the airport OPS staff (which largely doesn’t speak English and is often – particularly in certain countries – dysfunctional, treating the airport as just a place to sit and get paid) or they send the PN to the police contact email address (which almost never elicits a reply since a) the police ELP tends to be below zero and b) they – again particularly in some countries – also have zero interest in supporting the airport.
So, to save money / make GA travel more affordable, we get this stupid hassle, but that is how the system has always been set up.
At a few well-run airports the OPS staff is good and they sort out the PN for you. I’ve seen many examples. In former Yugoslavia this generally works. It is in the “old Europe” countries where it is broken.
Just had two completely opposite examples in France. The La Rochelle fly-in collapsed partly because the police absolutely refused to communicate re their ridiculous 48hr PN. They even, apparently, refused to communicate with the airport OPS staff. And I’ve just been to Lille where it works perfectly, with OPS smoothly sorting it out and with immediate replied by email.
