La Rochelle LFBH and its Schengen-defying 48hr PN for all non-French flights

Peter wrote:

Sure it was a typo (the DGAC writers tend to have ELP1, at best)

Insofar as it was a “typo” or “thinko” it was not linked to ELP, since the French version had the same “wacko” contents.

Peter wrote:

Can anyone translate the French text here ?

That text is not about customs but about (what the is done by the “Border Force” in UK-English). It says that a flight crossing Schengen borders from/to an aerodrome that doesn’t have permanent presence of the relevant agency must send a notice separate from a FPL. For scheduled CAT that notice is sent by the airport, and for all others [Lionel’s note: OAT, GAT, non-scheduled CAT] by the pilot. This notice must be done so that the necessary checks can be done, and this during the opening hours that the arrêté taken in accordance with article 4 has determined.

The notice period shall be to latest 24h before arrival/departure and must be transmitted through electronic messaging. However, the arrêté taken in accordance with article 4 can determine a different notice period, having taken in account the particular situation of the aeordome. In any case, the notice period is made known to the users by way of the aeronautical information [Lionel’s note: what the AIS does, meaning AIP, AIP-Sup, NOTAM, …]

The list of informations that must be included in the notice is in appendix hereof.

„My understanding is the FPL acts as a declaration of nothing to declare
I’ve never ever heard of anything like that, so a reference would be really interesting.“

As @gallois says, that‘s exactly what he‘s trying to get for France, i.e. the French equivalent of the statement to that effect from German customs in another thread… not that the FPL alone is the declaration but rather the active FPL and then crossing the border (in the air) is the declaration of „nothing to declare“.

Sweden has something of that sort, at least in practice. The wording is more like no declaration needed – if you file a FP and stick to the time limits (and don’t bring any goods that need custom declaration). I have only read the Swedish text, but it should be equal to English.

Norway has something similar too, but you have too hook of a mark in the FP that says “the FP is forwarded to customs”. I think it’s only possible via ippc.no For other FP software it’s perhaps configurable?

However, IMO none of the above treats the FP as a declaration. It’s more of an exception. Under certain circumstances a declaration is not needed, but only if you stick with the rules and also file a FP (and stick to the FP).

I’ve not read the entire thread, but for the record:

I have been to La Rochelle last week, the inbound flight from St. Cyr, i.e. within France, the outbound flight onwards to Spain. I obviously didn’t do my NOTAM briefing very well here, as I was not aware of the requirement. However, nobody cared. We had a nice chat with the police guys who were there. They kindly helped us with the door and our luggage (well.. I think they helped my blonde wife, I was just coincidentally there as well ). On departure, we filled in a little form with our details for the guy in the little “landing fees” hut, paid our fees and off we went.

As mentioned on another thread I have read EU2020/877 and found nothing useful with regard to our discussions on entry and exit to and from France.
No-one has so far been able to point me to any other EU rule that might be useful or even to confirm what regulation to Swiss /German flights discussed in another thread.
But I thought it might be useful to some to reiterate what has already been demonstrated (thanks to Lionel).
Firstly re this thread:-
Flying to and from any airfield in France from/to any of the 22 countries (soon to be 23 with the addition of Croatia) which are both in Schengen and the EU requires no prior notice for either customs or migration authorities (border police). This is confirmed in the 2017 customs code and by inter ministerial arrête of 20th April 1998 and reconfirmed in text C120-17 in the Journal of the European Union (JOUE) 13th April 2017.
So nothing required other than DGAC requirement to file a flight plan.

For the 4 countries in Schengen but outside of the EU, ie Iceland, Norway, Switzerland, Leichtenstein:- As before a Flight Plan needs to be filed but does not need to PN migration police but do need to PN douanier and land at an Aerodrome Douanier (customs airport)

For the 6, now 5 and soon to be 4 members of the EU that are not signed up to Schengen ie Bulgaria, Cyprus, Roumania, and Ireland ( Croatia and the UK being the other 2).

All countries outside of both of EU and Schengen are 3rd Countries. The UK is now one. There are different visa arrangements for different countries/states/principalities eg The Vatican, Andorra, The UK, and Bahrain may all be treated differently.
Pilots and aircraft coming from and going to a 3rd Country need to come and go via an airport with both migratory police and customs. PN needs to be sent (where requested) to both at the same time. It is possible that this is the same address/phone number/person.
Of course a Flight Plan is obligatory.

The PN notice required is set by the regional prefecture. It would take time to phone or email between 80 and 90 prefectures around France to find the criteria for setting that notice. My guess it is based on customs and migration staffing and work levels.

There is one other piece of information which might be relevant, especially for those coming from and going to Schengen but non EU countries.It is to be found in the eAIP chapter GEN 1.3.1 under the heading ENTRY TRANSIT EXIT of Flight Crew members. CUSTOMS FORMALITIES PASSENGER TRAFFIC ENTRY: PERSONAL BAGGAGE
Under b) can be found a note on personal baggage.
I won’t type it all up here but it might be useful if the EU reg referring to the Swiss/German thread can be found.
It might also be an interesting read for anyone coming to France on a regular basis.

As a personal point of view , having nothing to back it up except perhaps an understanding of the way things often work here: If I was a pilot wanting to fly to France from Switzerland and/or return, I might telephone or email Customs in advance, explaining that I have nothing to declare and ask what the position is. There may be some “laissez faire”. Use the customs address in the eAIP chapter 1 GEN.
Otherwise if travelling at a weekend and with a prospect of giving a PN many hours in advance I would ask especially if flying VFR for a contact if on the day of travel I should need to cancel or change plan. That way even a very long PN for a VFR flight only means a maximum of 2 emails.
It is likely that after PN with nothing to declare no customs officer will turn up.
However, anyone can be stopped at any time by a police officer asking to see identity or a customs officer wanting to check baggage or aircraft.

That brings me to another concern of Swiss pilots covered on this forum ie the Swiss Pilot who was fined in Germany and ended in crowd funding, see:-
eAIP GEN 1.2

Finally I find no explanation for why a Dutch Pilot got fined €1500 and had that fine confirmed until AOPA France got involved. Even according to the customs code, this should never have got that far and an apology should have been issued. Unless there is more to the story than we are hearing about.

See my post here.

This applies to flights from Schengen countries that are not in the EU customs union, e.g. Switzerland.

That thread subject is a bit misleading. It does not eliminate PN for an airfield with customs that want PN. It just means that one can fly from CH directly to any airfield that does not have customs if the prereq are met which is often the case. So it would not seem to apply to La Rochelle anyway. It would/should apply to France for a flight from CH to Blois or Amboise, for example.

@chflyer it’s the legal text on that and then the claification from customs and the DGAC that I am trying to get. At present I am ploughing through the 500+ pages of the 2015 text that the 2020/877 refers to.
At present I can find nothing which I can point the authorities or the FFA to which would serve to give blanket authorisation to Swiss pilots flying to any airfield within the Schengen area without landing at a customs airfield. Such customs airfields often require PN and the length of that PN is set at Regional level , in France at least.
If I can find something I will certainly follow it up to get a definitive statement.