Nice and friendly GA Airports in the area of Montpellier LFMT / Perpignan LFMP / Beziers LFMU

As long as you do a tech stop even in France, they don’t give a shit about PCR tests…
I did lot of them in lot of countries since Covid and everybody working the same way. TechStop don’t care. Fuel and goodby.

I agree 100% with the principle; the risk is if something delays the departure from there, and you have to stay the night.

Got this reply, which does not sound good.

I don’t think they “got” that this is a fuel stop.

I think I will avoid landing anywhere, except possibly LFQQ if very low on fuel.

No idea how to do a “detailed gendec”.

Emir uses LFMU with quick stops.

I have good experiences with LFMU (Béziers). Avignon is always nice as well and convenient with the hotel nearby if you need a stop-over for the night. For a simple tech-stop, I would personally to go Beziers.

Sure; but this is a special situation, and even more “special” with the French prohibition on UK people entering France. I need to get it in writing that a fuel stop is OK – even though it should be OK everywhere.

Peter wrote:

No idea how to do a “detailed gendec”.

Well, GENDEC is supposed to be this form local copy

Peter wrote:

I don’t think they “got” that this is a fuel stop.

Maybe yes, maybe not.

1. You might want a shuttle to go pay the landing tax, if you don’t want to walk. They just inform you on the availability.
2. In my experience, French airports (particularly in the South and South-West of France) are “drilled” by the customs to inform Customs (acting also as Border Force) of each and every flight from/out of France, even intra-EU intra-Schengen. Customs then decide to come or not. This does not mean that the PIC or the operator have any obligation to ensure Customs are notified! This makes sense on two levels:
   • There are subtleties around which territory is part the EU customs area and/or the EU VAT area (Post-Brexit Northern Ireland vs Liverpool, Pre-Brexit Channel Islands vs Isle of Man, Melilla, Campione d’Italia, etc) that one cannot expect each and every airport ops employee to know (obviously the case of CI and IoM has become much more clear now).
   • Even on an intra-Schengen intra-EU flight (for most of these items, even an intra-France flight), Customs/Border Force/Police can still come to check for:
     • moderate amounts of cash, on the scale of a few thousands of EUR
     • “commercial quantities” of goods subject to excise (tobacco, alcohol, fuel, …)
     • fugitives / outstanding arrest warrants

Emir used LFMU for his canaries trip.

Yes, LFMU is always efficient – my shortest stop was 25 min and the longest one 45 min.

LFMT is very similar although a bit higher landing fee comparing to LFMU (€50 vs €14).

I think it’s normal for OPS to ask for GENDEC this was the case way before Brexit, and I have sent customs notification or declaration every time I stopped in France but I rarely saw PAF/Douanes (maybe 1 out of 10 most of it was at LFAT)

It’s much easier to email/phone customs and fuel yourself with Total/BP or ask ATC for fuel truck, better not involve OPS unless you want parking…