Sometimes I do get confused with all this (!) – but if I were to fly from, say, Cremona (or any non-customs airport in Italy) to non-Schengen Croatia but landing at a port of entry there like Pula, is that legal? Or do I have to depart from a customs airport in Italy?
African Eagle member could help you with that.
Funny you are asking the question, I will do the same tomorrow…
Italia non custom airfield to port of entry in Croatia.
My understanding and same as all other contries that are not in Schengen you have to depart from a custom airfield… unless they have specific agrement…
Just to be clear – I am talking about departing from a Schengen country (Italy) non-customs airport and arriving at a customs airport non-Schengen. Latter is surely fine, it’s the departure from Italy I’m concerned about.
Stodge wrote:
Latter is surely fine, it’s the departure from Italy I’m concerned about.
Italian authorities can object this (it’s not legal to exit Schengen area without immigration control) although in reality I’m not sure whether anybody will react. If you did this from Germany you would definitively be in trouble. I did it many times from Slovenia and Austria but police was notified and they simply sent a note they wouldn’t show up.
Thanks Emir.
In case the Cremona option is no-go for Schengen reasons as above, can anyone recommend a legit port of entry/exit in the same sort of area (very roughly) of northern Italy which ain’t crazily expensive, isn’t mired in endless bureaucracy, doesn’t require too much advance notice and has AVGAS?
Oh – and has a lovely nearby town to stay the night in??
Stodge
I fly to Croatia from Schengen countries and always depart after clearing customs & getting a passport stamp. I’m almost certain you’ll need ports of entry at both ends.
I found the answer, not mandatory to take off or land from a port of entry if country is part of community (Europe)
This is not correct, unfortunately.
Schengen covers Immigration, not Customs. The EU membership covers Customs, not Immigration.
If you want to fly from Italy to a non Schengen country, you must depart from an airport which has Immigration.
This topic is complicated by the fact that “Customs” is standard aviation terminology for Immigration and Customs, because most airports in the world offer both, or none. Only in Europe there are airports which have just one or the other.
Emir described it correctly.
So you need to look at the Italian AIP entry for that airport and find out if it has Immigration. BTW, France calls it “Police” 
I’m pretty aware of the practice in France one of my base is Pontoise.
But in the case of italia AIP is pretty clear that it would be possible
