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Czech Republic introduces its own GENDEC / GAR (for non Schengen traffic)

As of today, the PIC of any aircraft intending to cross the Schengen border at any international aerodrome in Czech Republic other than Prague LKPR, Brno LKTB, Ostrava LKMT, Karlovy Vary LKKV or Pardubice LKPD shall inform the police of the identity of everyone on board using the border request check form prior to the flight. The form itself is a bit strange, but there seems to be nothing we can do about it thus far. At this point, this is just another item of bureacracy upon us, but, on the other hand, it eventually progresses to allowing us to fly beyond Schengen from/to any aerodrome, this will definitely be a step in the right direction.

[ URL updated 11/2019 ]

Last Edited by Ultranomad at 01 Aug 10:33
LKBU (near Prague), Czech Republic

@Ultranomad

Could you provide some more background please like the legal basis of this requirement (AIP? Law? NOTAM?) and also clarify whether this is only applicable when crossing Schengen? E.g. flying from the Czech Republic (Schengen member) to Croatia (not yet Schengen) requires the form but flying from the Czech Republic to Germany (Schengen member) the form is not required?

What was the procedure before when leaving Schengen from one of the smaller airfields that are now covered by this form?

Thanks!

I asked for clarification the border police last week. It´s applicable to non-schengen flights only. The procedure before was to ask the given airport to arrange customs. Now the list of persons on board needs to be filled only.

LKKU, LKTB

@achimha, the legal basis is the new State Borders Protection Act 191/2016 Sb. The requirement only applies to Schengen border crossings, not to intra-Schengen flights. Previously, no special procedure was established, and it was the airfield operator who was to make arrangements for border checks upon PIC’s informal request. Some airfields imposed a special fee for that – I wonder what happens with that fee now, when the PIC notifies the police directly.
The new law is less than two months old, so the implementation is still quite crude.

LKBU (near Prague), Czech Republic

Does this mean that effectively any little Czech field can be used to legally depart to / come back from non-Schengen countries that are in the EU, eg. Croatia?

tmo
EPKP - Kraków, Poland

I don´t think so. I guess it´s applicable to airfields having agreement with customs (those with Customs 24 Hrs notice for example), not generally any field…

LKKU, LKTB

THAT is the question. It would be a big thing (AFAIK, so far, no country other than the UK and Italy allows this).

Personally, I don’t think so. It probably only applies where previously customs were available on request.

Mainz (EDFZ) & Egelsbach (EDFE), Germany

@tmo, unfortunately not. I am merely hoping it will eventually work this way, but in its current version (link in Czech), the law still refers to international aerodromes only. According to the law, any aerodrome may be granted international status upon aerodrome operator’s application, but for this application to be successful, the operator shall implement operational measures to separate the passengers on international [that is, extra-Schengen] flights from other passengers, and provide premises for border checks (+ other requirements if there are more than 5000 international passengers per year). As far as I understand, this separation of passengers would imply at least a fence around the entire airfield, which is not the case at the vast majority of airfields in Czech Republic.

Last Edited by Ultranomad at 02 Aug 13:32
LKBU (near Prague), Czech Republic

no country other than the UK and Italy allows this

I don’t want to take this off topic but IIRC the Italian concession is for Immigration only, not Customs. One particular case was Oristano. The UK GAR system allows you fly between your farm strip and Kathmandu.

Administrator
Shoreham EGKA, United Kingdom

IIRC the Italian concession is for Immigration only, not Customs.

Exactly. And this thread is about immigration (Schengen entry/exit).

Mainz (EDFZ) & Egelsbach (EDFE), Germany
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