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ALL Italian airports: non Schengen flights are possible / immigration available

@Fenland Flyer: please put the blame on me, I couldn’t refrain from sidestepping into a practical question that could not possibly be answered profoundly without some political background. I am grateful for the enlightening and well-thought responses, but agree with you that this should not go beyond a sidestep from our main theme, which is aviation.

@Silvaire (and others): For many years I have driven my famous van at least once per year from Belgium to Italy and back, usually via Luxembourg and the San Gottardo tunnel. In gratitude for the free motorways in Germany and the benign Swiss motorway tax I used to take full fuel in Germany, and have dinner in Switzerland even if it was twice as expensive as in Italy. Now that the Germans talk of a tax “vignette” even outside their motorways, and a dinner in Switzerland is roughly four times what it costs in Italy, I am going to review this fundamentally.

EBZH Kiewit, Belgium

You know one of the things I like the most here is that people are more than willing to hold up hands and take the “blame”. Not perhaps an adequate choice of words from me but I am sure you will all understand the gist of it and well done to all. I gave up on the “other” site some years ago and then Peter kindly emailed me about the new EuroGA and here I am and so happy to be part of this throng. And by the way so happy to learn so much from others.

UK, United Kingdom

@Philip,

read the new PuF issue which will be out tomorrow

Very nice article indeed, as informative as your work usually is. I hope you don’t mind I read it today already as it was in my letterbox. BTW, good that you write there now, they do need people like you. I used to write for Heiko many years ago.

@Silvaire and Jan…

you all are going to Switzerland all the time and never told me Do so next time and stop for a coffee here.

LSZH(work) LSZF (GA base), Switzerland

Nobody in the Soviet Bloc can speak Swedish

But everyone (virtually) in Sweden can speak English!

Last Edited by Airborne_Again at 30 Jul 19:36
ESKC (Uppsala/Sundbro), Sweden

Personally, I find the admonishment of someone daring to talk politics on an aviation forum quite outrageous!
One can learn an enormous amount across a vast range of subjects if one uses one’s ears and mouth in relative proportion and that learning should, to any open-minded person, come from whatever source is convenient.

Whilst we are all brought here by a common interest, it shouldn’t prevent us from discussing anything that crops up, from politics to the opposite sex (or even same sex if that’s what floats your boat!).

It is criticism in a childish and uneducated fashion, commonly known as slagging, that drives me away from any forum.

But, I digress……..

Forever learning
EGTB

@Silvaire and Jan… you all are going to Switzerland all the time and never told me Do so next time and stop for a coffee here

Thanks – I would certainly like to do that! My next trip won’t get far enough west to reach Switzerland, but I’m pretty sure another in the future will do so

you all are going to Switzerland all the time and never told me Do so next time and stop for a coffee here

What about organizing a future Euroga flyin in Switzerland / Zurich ?

That would have to be without me: my type of microlight is not allowed in the Swiss sky, having no type approval neither in Germany nor in U.K.
Now for once that there is a suggestion of a destination within my reach…

EBZH Kiewit, Belgium

I flew from Dubrovnik to Lido di Venezia earlier this year, and to organise this, all I need to do was call the airfield the day before to advise my estimated time of arrival and ensure attendance of immigration officials- that’s all. However although that was ok, the “welcome” on arrival is not something I want to repeat – not only did I have immigration waiting there for me but also officials from the ministry of finance who proceeded to empty all hand luggage out on tables to ensure we weren’t carrying contraband. The end effect it took over half an hour until they were happy that I wasn’t smuggling money or drugs into the country.

However, I wouldn’t have minded, had they done their jobs professionally – first things first, the officials from the Finance Ministry only checked my hand luggage and not my aircraft – after being checked, I could have easily returned to my plane to get stuff I hadn’t brought in in the first place. Secondly, and more serious from my point of view, was that the police checked my passport and copied the details of this – in long hand – onto a piece of paper. Ok, if they need to confirm who I am and don’t have access to the relevant database, not a problem. However once we had cleared immigration, the police and the officials buggered off, the police throwing the piece of paper with all my details and those of my passengers – date of birth, passport number, everything – into a bin; with such information it’s easy to have your identity cloned, I was extremely pissed off to find such a lash attitude to data protection.

So, my solution, for those doing the same trip – fly to Porto Roz, clear customs there and then at least you’re arriving from a country which is a signatory to the Schengen agreement…..

Last Edited by Steve6443 at 02 Aug 16:43
EDL*, Germany

This is pretty disturbing to read about.

Is there any way to escalate this to some level at which it can be investigated? I believe Italy has an AOPA which will presumably have a contact in the Italian CAA. Pointing somebody there to this thread would be sufficient…

BTW what was your aircraft reg, and were there any non EU citizens on it?

fly to Porto Roz, clear customs there and then at least you’re arriving from a country which is a signatory to the Schengen agreement…..

I can’t see how that would help because Schengen is about movement of people, not movement of goods, so it would not help against police officers looking for goods. In fact from these descriptions is looks like the police there are totally unaware of even the most basic rules of Europe and behaved as if you came from Kabul.

What would definitely work would be flying to Portoroz and taking a bus to Venice!

Last Edited by Peter at 02 Aug 21:44
Administrator
Shoreham EGKA, United Kingdom
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