Gain and loss of immigration / customs at French airports, and current list

Does that actually correspond to the AIP AD?

For AIP AD2, it does not except some airports that are not PPF or AIU (e.g. Annemasse, Megeve, Treport…) but the rules and conditions are crystal clear in GEN1.3 “customs procedures for private flights” and unlike immigration (GEN1.2 says PPF obligatoire) there are no “customs opening hours” and customs presence is not obligatoire plus going to an airport without an AIP/VAC entry with PN tend to work pretty well…this relaxed system is only Switzerland/France (not UK/France) and is for private flights only !!!

It’s immigration that require lot of hassle, restricted airports and restricted opening hours plus mandatory presence

So there are many more French airports that have customs, than their AIP AD entry states. But not immigration.

What is the required PN?

I struggle to work out who this might benefit. Not the UK (pre or post brexit), so maybe Norway and Switzerland?

This seems completely backwards from anything logical, because, per the usual job demarcation rules, you need a “more specially trained” officer to do Customs, whereas for Immigration you just need a police officer with enough IQ to check the passport. So why does France provide this “much more difficult” service while not providing the “much easier one”?

If this is recent, maybe it is a consequence of this.

This relaxed system is only Switzerland/France (not UK/France)

Obviously not UK because UK has always needed Immigration. Should work for Switzerland and Norway, as per above.

Default is 24h PN to regional douanes (LFLI asks for 1h PN) and yes practically speaking it’s only for Switzerland, Norway is a bit far away…

Peter wrote:

Should work for Switzerland and Norway, as per above.

It does. There are a lot of airports pretty near of Switzerland plus at least two (Geneva and Bale Mulhouse) where one can actually do both (Swiss and French) customs.

In the Geneva Area there are numerous airports on French soil which do serve Swiss GA, Annemasse being the closest.

Mooney_Driver wrote:

Annemasse being the closest.

Same for Megeve and many small French airfields around Switzerland like Annemeass, these are not PPF and they are not AIU (NO commercial/import flight and NO extra-Schengen flight), for private flights intra-Schengen, the DGI/CLI Lyon has the PN/GENDEC form for PN and they can be called on +33 4 72 82 12 01

preavis_de_vol_pdf

Switzerland systematically require customs airport for landings though (there are few exceptions where it’s OK to fly from non customs airport in Switzerland with PN but only for takeoff)

The case of Geneva and Basel is different from small airfields, they are PPF+AUI what is documented in French laws is that you need to use the right door and see the right guys

To try and answer Peter long-lasting question about French border checks :

French border (customs and immigration) at GA airports are done by the French Douanes (Customs). The Police aux Frontières (Border Police) only check the main airports (Orly, Roissy, Nice etc…)

The Douanes :

• are a centralized force led by the minister of Budget (like the tax administration, unlike the police)
• have been under budget pressure since Schengen (22k employees then, 17k now). To give you an idea, their new 2022-2025 mission letter only guarantees to keep their manpower constant, nothing more. So they have been doing the same job or more with less officers.
• with a decreasing force, they try to become more proactive, intelligence-led and spend less time doing systematic (and boring) border checks
• have their fair share or suicides likes other law enforcement bodies
• are a unionized body like police and else…

My interpretation of the situation is :

• given the decreasing number of officers and higher workload, the easiest job to cancel to douaniers are the seldom checks at remote (from their bases) GA airports. The douaniers must be fed up to drive 2h to check 2 hobbyists carrying a few bottles of wine and chocolates for the lady. Their chiefs must be happy to relieve them from this task since it costs them nothing. That give the unions an easy win → everybody’s happy.
• the douanes still want to know who enters/exits schengen. So the easiest for them is to ask for the IDs or every traveller to check them, have lists of them and choose who they will check. For that, they need systematic data and time to assess who they want to check physically. Of course, they will not tell you if they are going to meet you, it would be quite self-defeating.
• there you have your 48h PPR with passport numbers, and seldom plysical checks (ie maximum annoyance to the GA pilot, minimum work to the douanes)
• they would be interested in a centralized, digital GAR system and be happy to drive to other airports than the ones currently listed, given they are not too far from their base. But they would never budget this for a few retired-accountant, hobby pilots (overmaking it here )

So to change that, you need to put pressure on the douanes chiefs, or maybe the préfet (kind of a republican Earl of a departement). The douanes roadmap reads :

Contributing to the attractiveness of French ports and airports
Customs is committed to and reinforces its efforts to control goods and ensure smooth border crossings.
• EU ports and airports are competing to attract economic activity, which creates wealth and jobs, linked to the import and export of goods.
• An important factor in the competitiveness of a port or airport is that the flow of goods is not delayed, especially for administrative reasons
77 PPF (air, sea or land border crossing points) are held by customs

So

• the economic sector (like airports) can put pressure on the douanes to get a better service.
• You must know that keeping businesses open and especially jobs running is quite a dire necessity for France today and the government listens to the economic sector when it barks.
• Maybe for exemple the Cherbourg Chamber of Commerce could exert pressure on the local préfet for him to put pressure on the douanes, if they had a real economic need. But do they ?

I don’t see any solution, unless one of you know a prefet or an Ministry of Budget high-ranking fellow.
The best we can hope is to keep the high level of service at L2K-QE2, but it can stop on a whim. We depend on their (douanes officers and chiefs) goodwill.
The best we can do (apart from hypothetical lobbying) is be super polite and respectful with douaniers when you meet them, don’t try to put stress on them.

One way would be to raise the question of border checks for sailing travelers, and making a GAR system for both pilots and sailors.

My 5 cents.

Thank you for a great post, Jujupilote.

I wonder where one could start? Somebody with connections… where is @Nestor?

they would be interested in a centralized, digital GAR system

I think Lyon & Metz divisions have one single contact and one single form for doing that, then they distribute that across the board (they cover mostly Switzerland GA traffic even sometimes in non customs aerodromes but shutt it’s only for local guys)

North West of France things are messy, there is no central team or unit, you rely on few DGI guys from maritime ports with 48h PN or PAF who only come the Croatia Charter or the RyanAir from Antalya or Marrakech

LeTouquet has permanent C/I for GA mostly (Calais will have it as well)

Good summation @Jujupilote
The problem is that this is not of interest to the FFA or FFPLUM who jointly represent the majority of pilots in France.

You’re welcome.

I should add that :

• the Douanes roadmap document states that the EES system will be implemented by them.
• 77 border crossing points is a very small number if you count all ground border points, commercial airports and harbors, including the french overseas territories. It leaves very little for us! In 2017, there was 74 airport border points. Hopefully L2K is one of them (which would explain the quasi-permanent douanes attendance).