To exemplify my previous post, I looked for an example of business flight who did a useless customs stop due to lack of customs at home.
I found F-HBAI, an Avanti who belongs to the big local company of Morlaix LFRU. The kind of company everyone knows in the area (even the local customs chief).
LFRU doesn’t allow flights to/from outside Schengen.
It appears the aircraft mostly fly to Paris LFPB, France or sometimes Spain. It rarely goes to UK.
On June 15, it did and made a short, 20-minute custom stop at LFOH:
The next day, it made a quick stop at Caen LFRK on the way back.
My point is even the big local company can’t make customs come to their base, even once in a while.
Why they have an Avanti and why they picked this stop are other questions I can’t resolve but are beyond my point.
Yes, Morlaix lost PoE status in 2012.
And yes, Cherbourg, Dinard or St. Brieux would have been a more direct route. But there can be a ton of reasons why one field is chosen over the other.
On the positive side: more movements, more crew proficiency, more fuel and maintenance sales and more landing fees… 
Another example I caught by chance. This time a Luxaviation Citation :
I guess they have the same issues with customs PNR than we do 
Note : It was a monday, and destination has customs PNR.
What a huge waste of time and money – all due to some bizzare police politics.
Yes, but the detour around Paris will be a similar waste. I understand it can‘t always be possible to route more directly, but in the case of Paris, the detour seems to happen in 100% of cases. Even London is better than that.
Peter wrote:
What a huge waste of time and money – all due to some bizzare police politics.
State is sparing 150ke for 1 full time job + office stuffs, although customer has to pay (probably 10k for that citation xl).
But actually it’s not up to the State to help you gain time and money, and it is clearly a service for wealthy people, there are probably more important place where to spend these 150ke, the first problem being the fact that UK is geagraphically in europe but silly politics decided that it’s not.
What could be done is to have a bit more of these office in the country, but an custom office in Morlaix would be fully dedicated to UK people, may be Uk could pay for it?
It would really help if there was a customs/immigration for EU running on the UK side. The likes of Biggin come to mind – they have many private flights and they might be able to pay for this service…
The Q to ask is how does the UK manage to provide customs and immigration everywhere, just using the GAR form system. And how does e.g. Croatia do it with just one police officer?
The French changes started in 2011 – well pre-brexit.
We’ve done all this before. IMHO it is a top level decision to do with “police activity distribution”, not really related to costs. One uses “intelligence” to decide who to visit.
Also this conversation would have been quite different had wealthy Russians still been travelling. There is a strong policy disregard for local economics e.g. removing police from Courchevel, which (back in the day this was done) would have lost a lot of Russian business. Now, of course, it doesn’t matter since it affects only Norway (which does almost no relevant travelling), Switzerland and the UK.
There is a precedent for paying, with e.g. LFBE charging €50 for extra-schengen departures or arrivals (not checked current charges; this was a while ago).
arj1 wrote:
It would really help if there was a customs/immigration for EU running on the UK side. The likes of Biggin come to mind – they have many private flights and they might be able to pay for this service…
What is the add value? It has permanent UKBF but you have to send GAR and stick to PN/ETA anyway !
I have flown Biggin-EU few times, it’s extra cost and hassle: you can’t go in & out without meeting UKBF in the main terminal
Not an issue if you are visiting but if you are based with aircraft parked/fueled near Shipping Airlines you will have some fun…you also need airside badge to go there and you need to park car and drop pob at the right place before picking aircraft…it’s difficult to explain how it works, you have to try it
I tend to enjoy customs/immigration experience in UK grass strips when coming from EU, no high-viz and no badge, UKBF will get in touch if they are interested
The truth is the UK has brilliant & efficient system for GA: H24 everywhere, just leave it ‘as it is’ it’s beautiful, even the eAPIS in US which is a GA heaven has more constraints than GAR, in US you have to stick to ‘opening hours’ and ‘mandatory first stop in few adjacent airports’ !
Biggin has lots going for it, starting with opening hours and the ILS.
The hangarage, maintenance and other “ground situation for GA owners” is highly problematic, unfortunately, but that’s another topic.
Is there a precedent for French police in the UK? Only Eurotunnel AFAIK.
If not based at Biggin, I doubt I would fly via Biggin to clear French police, because LFAT is probably nearer and better for the purpose of avoiding some 24/48hr French PN, but if we lose LFAT then the situation will change dramatically. Also LFAT doesn’t help if you are going somewhere in the east of France.
The UK GAR system is great but for unknown political reasons others don’t go for it. Also schengen has reduced the apparent need, and post-brexit nobody wants to appear to be doing something “for” the UK. One guy who used to post here said he knew why France is doing what it is doing but he won’t post it. Another guy who I know and who definitely knows “why” is also keeping silent So obviously it is top-level political.
