Can anyone spot the four new ports of entry?
At a guess I would say La Roche Sur Yon, Quimper (because I thought it at stopped a year or so ago), St Brieuc, and Lorient. But that is just a guess.
Just noticed St Nazaire on that list. I didn’t know that, when necessary I’ve always dropped in to Rennes or Nantes coming from or going to UK.
Dinard can be a bit congested but St Nazaire is usually very quiet.
StBrieuc & StNazaire & Quimper had customs and used them before, all are very quiet & handy indeed
You are probably right about La Roche Sur Yon !
I found someone stuck in front of StNazaire gate on a quiet Sunday last summer, he did not have the gate codes and told with his wife they were trying to get inside for 1h, he was hoping that customs or aeroclub will be around to open the gate for him before he goes back to Norwich in his PA46, they were not the “gates climbing types” 
I was under the impression that St Brieuc and Quimper stopped their customs and immigration posts about 2 years ago. I seem to remember something coming out of the DGAC.
I did Quimper direct in 2019 so if it lost C+I it would have been after that.
As further back in this (merged) thread shows, France removed C+I from many airports, maybe 100, in 2011 and then in another tranche a few years later. It would be good if some were reinstated because UK pilots do make up a significant amount of business at many of them, and even though it can seem to us that the authorities (especially the police) don’t care at all about whether an airport lives or dies, when somebody looks at the bottom line, they must notice… After all, many are Chamber of Commerce funded, and somebody must be signing the cheques!
The problem can be economics, environmental or political.
To put a C+I facility at most airfields is not economically viable for the small numbers of Brits or Swiss who might need such a facility unless of course that airfield also gets International flights as well.
GA landing fees, fuel, and tourist receipts from GA from these 2 countries would rarely be made up by the aircraft that might turn up on a sunny day.
It is the local CCI who in most cases have to make the decision and pay for the staff. Otherwise it would have to come out of the airfield management coffers. It only really works where the border force are based nearby such as at a seaport like Cherbourg, or an industrial hub like St Nazaire which has Airbus nearby and regular visits from their “Baleine”.
Environmental problems can be seen at Toussus le Noble LFPN. Over the past several years the airfield has been fighting off pressure from the neighbours to have it closed entirely. A compromise on hours and circuit were agreed to keep it functional. At present there is a big argument over a NOTAM which by many is considered to be contrary to flight safety.
It involves flying over or avoiding a particular village situated under the final. Remembering that LFPN has 2 parallel runways.
LFPN management possibly do not see any advantage to be gained in encouraging flights from and to non Schengen or non customs union countries.Especially as they might not be totally “au fait” with the local procedures.
Political, because there is always a Mayor who doesn’t like aviation or GA and wants to close airfields. Frejus, Colmar are 2 off the top of my head.There is also the factor that France are still trying to train up enough extra border force personnel to deal with the UK now being a 3rd country.
Finally, to the vast majority of French pilots ga is a hobby. For them C+I at the airfields they use and the places they visit is pretty much irrelevant. And Schengen and the customs union has made it even less relevant since they came in.They can put up with the encumbrance dropping off at a C+I airfield on their way to an from the Channel Islands or into Switzerland.
That’s a pretty complex picture…
Someone mentioned further back that the reason for the large scale removal of “police capability” was that Brussels required a certain minimum % of “interception” of flights, and the “flying squad” system which France uses at the vast majority of GA-usable airports (the UK uses the same, and I am sure most of Europe does too, with Croatia being one exception, with 24/7 police at the islands like LDLO) was not capable of meeting that threshold.
I have no idea if that is true, but if it is true then I have to ask how come it worked perfectly well for so long.
to the vast majority of French pilots ga is a hobby
Of course, but something strange I have noticed over the last 20 years: at almost all of the airports in N France which I have flown direct to in France, there was zero “club” activity. Deauville was one exception. I can barely recall ever seeing even 1 person at the aeroclub at Le Touquet, and definitely only once ever did I see any activity at Cherbourg (I remember taking a photo of it ). I thus think the club flying scene does not go to these. It would mean that club activity is not going to feature on the balance sheet for these airports, but Brit visitors well might. One airport reported a 1/3 loss of business, upon loss of police attendance (can’t remember which).
gallois wrote:
LFPN management possibly do not see any advantage to be gained in encouraging flights from and to non Schengen or non customs union countries.Especially as they might not be totally “au fait” with the local procedures
The good news is that the LFPN mayor just got her CPL and she is doing MEIR
The reason why Toussus does not have customs is LeBourget have them
gallois wrote:
It involves flying over or avoiding a particular village situated under the final. Remembering that LFPN has 2 parallel runways.
LFPN management possibly do not see any advantage to be gained in encouraging flights from and to non Schengen or non customs union countries.Especially as they might not be totally “au fait” with the local procedures
That is only applicable to VFR visual circuit and south joins at “low heights” (CAS starts at 1500ft amsl and you are dragged at 700ft agl for 15min) which is problematic, while some of the blame goes to “lost visitors” from outside C+I territory like Norway & Switzerland & UK & Jersey (for instance a Netherland & German pilot are rarely lost when passing abeam Versailles ), most of actual complaints are related to the local circuit training
The whole fuss about noise & flight paths is not applicable to “international IFR departures & arrivals” they just launch like any traffic from Orly, AFAIK those flight paths don’t require any “local knowledge”, I think they are well coded in GNS databases and flown on AP? and runway extended lines are clear of residential houses on Villa side has another runway + industrial estate, to the west it’s green…
I have been looking through the new list of Douanes/Police requirements and comparing to the 2017 list. Quite a lot of them have now a “PPR” requirement, not just “PN”. Some (e.g. Pau, Poitiers) require both PPR and PN, the logic of which escapes me.
Deauville for example, which was handy for no notice in the past, now has 24H/48H PPR requirement plus Gendec. I wonder whether that actually means actively getting permission from someone, not just sending a notice? Contrast this with Dinard, a 24H/48H PN requirement. Assuming one’s notice does not attract a reply, actively getting permission might mean tracking down someone in the police/customs office and getting some sort of affirmative before the applicable deadline. Even LFAT has a 2H PPR requirement now.
How all this interacts with say a weekend weather diversion I can only wonder about ……
Or alternates.
