Today I had a bit of a run-in with customs at Lognes LFPL. They claimed I sent the “flight plan” for the wrong airfield. I first was confused, because they meant the customs notification, not the ATC flight plan. They meticulously checked all my baggages, including the dirty underwear, and found nothing worth their attention. Then I showed them the fax transmission log. They then verified that I used the correct fax number and e-mail address, the time and date of the transmission and that the transmission was ok.
At that point, they became a lot friendlier, and had a lengthy phone call with the guy manning the fax machine. Indeed, I originally wanted to go to Toussus le Noble LFPN and sent them a notification to that effect. Later, I found out that LFPN had no ATS services today, and that “foreigners” need an explicit approval from DSAC nord to operate from Toussus without ATC (which means LFPN is difficult to go to as foreigner because the tower seems to be unmanned fairly often). So I replanned for LFPL and sent them an update. That update never reached the officers doing the check.
The guy that reads the faxes was apparently confused by the title I chose. They want me to write “PREAVIS DOUANIER: demande d’ouverture” in the future. They also weren’t too happy with me writing a dash to indicate no passengers. They want me to write “0” or “néant”. Finally, I hadn’t indicated whether I had “marchandises à déclarer” (interestingly, I once got a form from the CLI Lyon which didn’t have that either).
So you have been warned.
I had essentially the same at Poitiers recently. There is no sense of humour in France right now for any problems regarding notifications. I suggest making sure you get an acknowledgement from Les Douanes.
JasonC wrote:
I suggest making sure you get an acknowledgement from Les Douanes.
But how?
They don’t publish a telephone number. I talked to at least 5 people within aeroports de paris, and noone had a customs phone number. And today, they didn’t want to give me one either. And they never responded to e-mails…
Some places do publish one. If they don’t then you are stuffed. Just keep proof as you did.
Interesting that you are still using a fax machine. In the past, I had a similar run-in in the UK. After that I got a fax machine and brought copies of the fax receipts with me (which allowed me to be assertive with the police on at least one occasion when they insisted that they didn’t get any notification from me).
I continued to use faxes long after most people used email, as there is no reasonable proof of sending an email, much less proof of delivery. A fax receipt is proof of both.
These days, in the UK, you can get an electronic receipt if you file on line, so that’s easier.
A pity France seems to have gone down the nasty route, particularly given that they have much less defined rules for how he notification is supposed to be given and what info is supposed to be on it.
There were about 15 Douanes at Le Touquet today, of whom all but one were trying to look useful.
I think it’s a cultural thing…
It’s easy enough and cheap enough to send faxes, using an email to fax gateway. I’ve had one for about 15 years. The receipt comes by email. Receiving faxes is more involved but fortunately in this case you don’t need to do that. I know people take the p1ss out of fax but it’s human nature (self selection on character profile) that the sort of organisations which are packed with jobsworths are the same ones which couldn’t care less about keeping a published email address running…
Could someone please explain to a complete novice euro-flyer like me very specifically what one is supposed to do as regards French Customs, and what the French are complaining about please.
I guess it’s all about the customs notification that one has to send when flying into France from a non-Schengen country, but how much notice do the French require and where exactly do they need to be sent? Is there a form (like a French equivalent of the UK’s GAR form?) that the French have? Is there no central customs notification authority in France? Is that the point – Does each airport require its own customs notification? Does SkyDemon not provide any of this functionality?
What happens if one flies into France with no customs notification and one has no illegal contraband? Are there fines or other sanctions for simply providing no advance notification?
Sorry to ask such basic questions, but perhaps there are others here who also don’t know the answers. (I’m certain of course that many of the people here know these answers very well….forgive me the use of the bandwidth please.)
Howard
French instances are quite nervous after recent bombings – they seem to have indications that more might be under preparation. I’d not be surprised if the poor police staff and other officials get contradicting instructions from various sources.
It’s an extremely good question, but there is no clear answer.
As you know, the UK disposes of the Customs/Immigration question (note that intra-EU the issue is just Immigration, not Customs, though most countries don’t separate the two at airports) using the GAR form, which is ritually ridiculed by UK pilots but is actually a brilliant way to do it.
The starting point is the AIP. The French one is normally of good quality (one exception I recall being a long lag in its updating c. 2012 when the French pulled Customs+Immigration from about 50 airports) and under the heading of Customs or Police (“Police” = Immigration) you will find the requirements, if any, for PNR.
There is no standard form. I have some stuff here
Loads of French airports, even “Ryanair” types, have stupid PNR e.g. 24hrs. But normally there is an email and fax to which you send the details.
I have never received a reply, and same goes for just about all of Europe. So, yes, this is not ideal because you can’t prove it was sent. With faxes, often there is no paper in the fax machine but you still get a valid receipt. With emails, many get eaten by spam filters. A simple tactic with email is to send it twice, about an hour apart, because most no spammer does that. My personal view is that if you are doing this for a country which has a reputation for occassional dodgy behaviour by law enforcement (and that would include the UK if going to Jersey etc i.e. Special Branch) then I would do both a fax and an email. For outgoing fax I use interfax.net and a prepayment of say 20 quid lasts for ever for this purpose.
In reality, the police at most airports doesn’t care 99% of the time. Yesterday at Le Touquet I was expecting to get pulled up by the police for not having sent in the 2hr PNR (there is an email address) but nothing was said. I also forgot at various French airports over the years and nothing ever happened.
If you are going to an airport which has mandatory handling then just phone the handler. They always speak English (English = more traffic = more €€€€ 
) and they will sort the PNR stuff for you and, if they can’t, will give you the exact details. Bizjets just use handling all the time; they don’t have time to waste and don’t want hassle. Light GA likes to avoid handling (understandably) and gets varying amounts of hassle as a result.
I am puzzled, within EU there should be no customs as there is liberty of transport of goods & persons.
Only border control is possible when not in Schengen or did I miss something ?
