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Temporary Schengen "suspension" around Europe

All I know is that last time I went there, about a year or so ago all the buildings there had been flattened.
Also you always used to see C+I trainees running round the rugby field and walking dogs but I saw none of that. It looked to me like a permanent stoppage. If I get chance I’ll pop over and take another look.

France

Is France gradually shutting up for foreign traffic?

La Rochelle 48hr PN

Administrator
Shoreham EGKA, United Kingdom

I have looked through EU law on this. Whilst I agree 48PN on Schengen aircraft is illogical, I can’t find anything.that says it is.against EU or Schengen law. What it does say is basically that airport management can set their own rules in a range of matters. This could include only supplying certain services to scheduled traffic.
But even if PN was.not required for Schengen or EU traffic, this would not affect the situation with the UK.
The pros and cons of Brexit are now irrelevant to most pilots based in the EU and the Schengen area in particular with the exception.of France. After Sunday those pros and cons may well be hotly debated here. On the other hand they may simply be shrugged off got another 5 years or more.

France

From here

I am sure any airport can legally implement a 1 year PPR if they wanted to. Europe does not have the US concept of “public airports” whereby an airport must accept traffic otherwise it loses the FAA funding. There are some “public” airports, and there are many airports which European pilots think are “public” because they are owned by the local govt, etc, but there is no comparable sanction if the airport “management” decides to restrict traffic, so these can do what they like.

The enforceable angle with La Rochelle is the effect on the Schnegen treaty. This is what French pilots should be looking at. In particular the requirement for papers to be checked; this is a full “border check”.

Administrator
Shoreham EGKA, United Kingdom

Most airports in France are public airports. They carry the tag CAP. But even public airports can have it’s own rules. Eg don’t fly over this area because of noise abatement. Whether it is an International or semi International airport.
The LFBH situation has no effect whatsoever on the Schengen Treaty, because people coming from the Schengen area can land at any number of other airfields.
The 48hr PN or even 8hrs PN at LFBH just does not seem to have any logic behind it as coming from a Schengen country you do not need to contact border force according to the treaty.
It also doesn’t make sense because you are not PN ing the airport but the bse. and I do wonder if they just bin the information when the departure/destination is Schengen. Except in that case why was somebody fined by another bse. for not PNing. (I believe this was the case reported in a different thread)

France

What is the current situation when flying between Schengen countries today? I would have thought no immigration or customs checks, but I still see some countries require forms to be filled in (online) for COVID. If 3x vaccinated, is it reasonable to assume that you can just fill in the form (and flight plan) but otherwise don’t need PPR or to alert Border authorities of your flight?

Specifically, I have seen Austrian airports asking for 1 day formal request by special form for all international arrivals/departures.

Free circulation once within Schengen used to make the formalities fairly straightforward and I hope we can return to that soon.

FlyerDavidUK, PPL & IR Instructor
EGBJ, United Kingdom

DavidC wrote:

I have seen Austrian airports asking for 1 day formal request by special form for all international arrivals/departures.

Which ones, and when did that happen?

Mainz (EDFZ) & Egelsbach (EDFE), Germany

What is the current situation when flying between Schengen countries today? I would have thought no immigration or customs checks

I think showing vaccination forms is still mandatory these days…

Depends what is being introduced but some countries had “health controls” while other had “border controls”, if the former is done by the latter then the distinction is irrelevant

France, still has temporary border controls for intra-Shengen (for refegees, secondary mouvement and health checks) at all of it’s train & airport of entry but not at other places

I think Spain still restrict intra-Shengen arrivals to few ANEA airports for health screening

Last Edited by Ibra at 24 Apr 09:18
Paris/Essex, France/UK, United Kingdom

Spain is a good example. There is no NOTAM that requires pilots to give an PN for flights to Spain. Even less so a NOTAM that restricts choice of airports.

But there is one of those general “Covid” NOTAMs out there, and it specifically includes GA. And, as is modern fashin, it doesn’t tell you what to do, but it refers you to a different Spanish legisation (only available in Spanish language).

That document says nothing worthly of mentioning for GA pilots, but it does say (translated by google):

Clear as mud, no? Anyway, it would be overinterpreting things to say that this means that all flights (those with pax on board) from abraod can only use certain airports. It’s just not written there.

Whether they check my temperature after my arrival, I wouldn’t care. But obviously they won’t if I land at Ampuriabrava.

So why make a NOTAM that specifically includes general aviation, but completely fail to understand that general aviation is not only taking place at big airports with sanitary controls services 24/7 at hand?

It would be good to get pireps to find out if any flightplans to GA airfields are leading to problems in practice. But I can’t believe so. There is a lot of high end (jet/turboprop) traffic landing at Sabadell. I am sure it is not all domestic traffic…

Last Edited by boscomantico at 24 Apr 10:04
Mainz (EDFZ) & Egelsbach (EDFE), Germany

“Which ones, and when did that happen?”

I am looking at visiting Voslau LOAV which requests this for international arrivals. Unclear if this applies to Intra-Schengen but it would appear to me to be so.

Their website also states Vaccination AND PCR test within 72 hours but that isn’t in line with current Austrian regulations. I sent them an email asking for clarification but no answer yet.

It looks like a really good GA airport to visit.

Last Edited by DavidC at 24 Apr 11:02
FlyerDavidUK, PPL & IR Instructor
EGBJ, United Kingdom
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