HBadger wrote:
do I understand that in case I have nothing to declare I can fly directly from Zürich to a small German non customs airfield (and back) without paperwork and without PN? That would be too good to be true
You do understand this correctly – this is what the original email says.
However – before we start to celebrate now – there is one word of caution. The catch that is still to be evaluated (and where one might want to get confirmation by the competent customs authority) is, what does “nothing to declare” really mean.
In my opinion the case is clear as long as you enter with your own airplane (i.e. an airplane that is fully owned by you personally) and use this airplane in the EU customs area only for your personal transportation and the transportation of those doing the journey with you.
When you deviate from that “base case” it becomes less clear at which point in time the plane becomes a good and therefore you need an explicit customs exception (which you either need to apply for long in advance or that you can get at a customs or special airfield on the spot): Biggest case group will be if the plane does not belong to you but you “rented” it from the owner – that includes all airplanes from commercial renter, club airplanes, syndicate airplanes where the syndicate is a legal entity and of course al n-regs. I would argue these are still personal means of transportation and therefore except but the customs might argue that the actual owner is doing a business with them in the customs area and therefore they are obviously goods.
Similar questions still apply when you use the plane for any kind of commercial activity in the Union space – and more importantly what will be regarded as commercial activity.
Overall: Yes, situation got much better for owner pilots doing their coffee run to Germany (and esp. for German pilots coming back from Switzerland) but we might want to wait some more weeks until we have more clarity on the fine print – I’m sure German aviation press will pick this up and publish legal opinions in their upcoming issues…
The other difficulty might be proof that you have not imported something which should be declared.
At present people entering a point in the EU from outside the customs union at a PoE would normally pass through a red channel or a green channel.Its a sort of on your honour system. However when passing through a green channel a customs officer has the right to pull you over and check car, baggage aircraft etc.
In which case you are at the whim of customs officers as to whether you or your aircraft gets searched or not.
Will this sort of checking become more prevalent at small airfields in Germany and possibly in the rest of Europe?
In which case the Gendec and some sort of temporary import/export paperwork or certificate may become a standard part of any flight into or out of the customs union.
As M. Barnier used to say,repeatedly
“Everything has consequences”
Having received a direct email response from the customs helpline, I would summarize it as
- a plane as a means of transport is automatically (concludent action = crossing the border) filed for temporary use, in case of both return (my case) or initial entrance. Special cases, like N-regs owned/operated by EU-citizens, not mentioned in my email, didn’t asked about it either…
- everything that would be OK in the green channel as pax at an airport is fine, too, i.e. things you use and goods within the allowed limits (any concern you have as pax passing the green channel → same here)
So, from a customs perspective that is sufficient for me. Immigration can be trickier, since (unlike e.g. Austria) there are quite few places, where PNR/PPR cannot be arranged for (my home base being just one).
From within Schengen, it is easy now. Everything else needs immigration checked/planned properly.
However when passing through a green channel a customs officer has the right to pull you over and check car, baggage aircraft etc.
Sure, but the “vehicle” should be presumed to be exempt from import duty/VAT – just like the fuel in your tanks. In India they like to access duty on the fuel, unless you dispense some USD to a bunch of officials.
Otherwise, foreign travel becomes a bit of a joke.
In which case you are at the whim of customs officers as to whether you or your aircraft gets searched or not.
That will always be the case, upon entry to the EU, or upon return from EU to the UK. I got such a visit a week ago (reported here). It will never be possible to buy a CHF 20k PP watch in CH and just fly back to the UK with it, legally.
One comment made in Germany was that this new concession appears to apply to planes or cars but you still cannot ride an expensive bike across the border from CH to DE.
Special cases, like N-regs owned/operated by EU-citizens, not mentioned in my email, didn’t asked about it either…
I don’t understand why this should be different. Why is an N-reg different upon entry to DE versus a D-reg, F-reg, etc? All are equally likely (or not!) to have been properly imported, x years previously.
everything that would be OK in the green channel as pax at an airport is fine, too, i.e. things you use and goods within the allowed limits (any concern you have as pax passing the green channel → same here)
FWIW, in the UK the import limits differ from GA to airlines; they are lower for GA.
N-regs operated by EU citizens have, on some occasions, been considered special cases by (tax/customs) authorities – as are sometimes even cars registered across EU borders.
As it is of special interest here, I wanted to be clear that this has not been explicitly asked nor stated in either way in the otherwise clear message I have received.
Interpret it in any way you feel comfortable.
Malibuflyer wrote:
Overall: Yes, situation got much better for owner pilots doing their coffee run to Germany (and esp. for German pilots coming back from Switzerland) but we might want to wait some more weeks until we have more clarity on the fine print – I’m sure German aviation press will pick this up and publish legal opinions in their upcoming issues…
Absolutely. While this is potentially wonderful news, we really need to make sure as it is really too good to be true to be taken just on the base of an e-mail. I really hope we get “official” word of how this really works.
Also airports need to be made aware of this. I wonder if it will also do away with the formalities such as sending lists with all occupants with their passport numbers e.t.c. as it is required by many airports right now, as this was one of those things where Schengen actually makes this unnecessary but customs insisted on it, which is again one of the cases where the two are meddled.
Peter wrote:
I don’t understand why this should be different. Why is an N-reg different upon entry to DE versus a D-reg, F-reg, etc? All are equally likely (or not!) to have been properly imported, x years previously.
It’s not different – it’s just pretty unlikely that an n-reg in Germany is flown by its owner – and things can get tricky in any case if the means of transportation is not used by the owner but by somebody else. There are lots of “interesting” cases of cars that have been rented or lended when they entered the customs union…
it’s just pretty unlikely that an n-reg in Germany is flown by its owner
It’s gonna be really interesting who from Germany doesn’t respond now 
There is also discussion of this in the Swiss ILS forum, with a certain amount of scepticism. Specifically, it seems that German customs considers a private aircraft to fall under the category of “goods” (“ware”) rather than a means of transport which is the classification of an auto. So there is an ongoing conversation about the need to obtain further clarification in the form of a request for written confirmation based on a specific theoretical example case.
Malibuflyer wrote:
There are lots of “interesting” cases of cars that have been rented or lended when they entered the customs union…
What interesting cases? Ive hired Swiss cars and driven in Germany or France, and German or French Cars and driven in Switzerland. The only thing any Customs person has ever asked is how much booze, cheese or meat I have.
Regards, SD..
