You can of course complain forever about different police forces and how that wastes money etc.
I just tried to explain why, given the structures that we have, a French airport without frequent airline flights from abroad will usually have a PPR requirement for non-Schengen flights if GA aircraft.
It is also my impression that the “24h” are usually not enforced strictly in France. The term “24h” merely means “don’t send us a fax in the evening if you want to pitch up here at 8:00h the next morning”, which is also common sense.
Peter wrote:
If Ryanair (or other international flights) still flies there, this is a direct finger-up to the UK…How would a 24 hr PN requirement affect an airline with scheduled services?
What I was getting at is that they most likely have the police there all the time anyway, or most of the time. It gets really silly when you are inbound somewhere and have to give 24hrs PN and when you get there you see a couple of airliners being emptied. It’s like what we have had in Greece: the “customs” officer is there all the time the airport is open but still charges €40 for “driving there” (that was an old scam at Lesbos LGMT).
Actually Bosco I think you will find the LDLO policeman (or policewoman) who checks your passport is the same one who has been sitting there in the hut just outside while the airport was shut.
Regarding France… new update in the saga and confirmation that the police has misinterpreted the law/regulation and that for an intra-shengen flight only a FPL is required.
Copy/paste of the received mail:
Bonjour M. Vxxxx
La Gendarmerie ne gère pas les contrôles trans-frontière mais bien la Police aux frontières.
L’information du rétablissement sur les points frontières aéronautique m’était parvenu par mon correspondant police aéronautique.
Suite à un mail d’un pilote belge, j’ai rappelé hier soir l’Etat Major de la PAF à LILLE. Il y aurait eu une erreur d’interprétation du texte de leur part.
Il faut comprendre que le rétablissement des contrôles aux frontières est rétabli jusqu’au 30 avril 2018 et que sur le plan aéronautique les pilotes belges doivent simplement déposer un plan de vol mais sont susceptibles d’être contrôlés sur tous les aérodromes secondaires par les services aux frontières.
Vous voudrez bien m’excuser de cette méprise qui n’est pas de mon fait et en informer votre hiérarchie.
Bien à vous.
Bonjour Monsieur Vxxxx.
Pour faire suite à notre récent entretien téléphonique, j’ai l’honneur de vous confirmer que la procédure de rétablissement des contrôles aux frontières intérieures en vigueur en France jusqu’au 30 avril 2018, et sous réserve que les vols n’aient pas vocation à du transport de marchandises, n’implique pas que les pilotes d’aéronef en provenance de Belgique, ou de tout autre pays membre de l’espace Schengen, soient tenus de se poser sur un aérodrome classé “point de passage frontalier”.
En effet, seuls les aéronefs en provenance de pays extra Schengen sont soumis à cette obligation.
Toutefois, si un aérodrome qui n’a pas la qualité de point de passage frontalier fait l’objet de contrôles aux frontières intérieures par les autorités françaises, dûment déclarés à la commission européenne, tous les pilotes qui se posent sur cet aérodrome sont tenus de se conformer aux contrôles.J’ai pris connaissance des observations formulées par un de nos collaborateurs figurant infra. Je vous confirme qu’elles relèvent d’une mauvaise interprétation des textes sur un cas particulier signalé à la direction zonale de la police aux frontières du Nord. Des mesures de corrections ont été à ce titre engagées.
Je me tiens à votre disposition pour de plus amples informations que vous souhaiteriez voir développer.
Très cordialement
Just landed at LPPM direct from LESO – contacted the airport in advance but only out of courtesy.
All extremely easy.
Best regards, Sam.
Recently, there have apparently been some events raising doubts whether any French aerdrome which is a customs aerodrome, but not a point de passage frontalier, can be used for flights between Switzerland and France.
A Swiss pilot has now drafted and sent a letter to the French Customs Directorate, asking for clarification. For those who can read French, it can be found here. PDF
Let‘s wait and see if they give a useful reply. In that case, I will try to report back.
Note: this does not concern flights between France and the UK. This is really a CUSTOMS matter, not an immigration one (often wrongly referred to as „customs“ by UK pilots).
boscomantico wrote:
Note: this does not concern flights between France and the UK. This is really a CUSTOMS matter, not an immigration one (often wrongly referred to as „customs“ by UK pilots).
Unfortunately, soon there will not be much difference (but hopefully the GAR system stays, after all everything can be solved by technology these days 
)
often wrongly referred to as „customs“ by UK pilots
Not really. “Customs” is the word used internationally to mean Customs and Immigration. It is only in parts of Europe that the two are separated.
Google translation:
Peter wrote:
Not really. “Customs” is the word used internationally to mean Customs and Immigration. It is only in parts of Europe that the two are separated.
I beg to disagree. It is true that in many countries the two are handled together by the same person, but in that case it is usually called “Customs and Immigration”. In some places (e.g. some airfields in Germany coming from Switzerland), customs will ask to see a passport. But that doesn’t mean the person is doing any kind of immigration control.
The Google translation is not too bad. There is one slight error, for the benefit of readers here:
The following phrase in the 2nd last English paragraph above
coming with a light commercial aircraft without goods to declare
is not the correct translation of the original
venant avec un avion léger de tourisme sans marchandise à déclarer
The use of the word “commercial” is not appropriate and a better phrasing would be “coming with a light tourist aircraft without goods to declare” would be better. The original letter does not imply that the flight is of a commercial nature.
It will indeed be interesting to see what French customs responds to this letter.
