Antonio wrote:
It has now been leaked that Schengen may be suspended for two years unless a way is soon found to effectively control immigration flows.
From what I understand it is not Schengen itself that will be suspended, but it is the maximum length of temporary border controls (that Schengen members have always had the right to impose) that will be increased to two years.
In the UK you can fly from any farm strip to/from Kathmandu if you like, using the GAR form.
The notice periods start at No notice for outbound (EU departure, all persons EU citizens) with 4hrs for inbound (likewise). So that’s by far the usual case. If going non-EU then it is 24hrs for both out and in. Details here on page 8.
The GAR form is ritually criticised by UK pilots but it gives us a huge privilege which no other country I know of has. And filing it is just an email. The drawback is the notice period – 24hrs is excessive and is really bad if going to the Channel Islands, IOM or Ireland – even 12hrs is a long time. People get around it by flying via Cherbourg but the extra stop wastes time and money 
Practically speaking I am surprised suspending Schengen makes much difference because nothing short of a Soviet Bloc type or border (dual barbed wire fences with anti personnel mines between them, H24 patrolling and shoot on sight) is going to stop people crossing borders on mainland Europe. There may be road checkpoints, so you just walk across… what am I missing? Even the UK is easily done, with a boat during the night.
Note that Greece is in Schengen but they never operated it. I actually wonder why they signed it. Maybe it was done after some big party, or a quid pro quo with Brussells?
We GR,are ready to be expelled within the next few days. FRONTEX army is southbound to liberate our north frontier with Skopje (being hijacked by Iranians,Afghanis and Bangla).
Peter wrote:
24hrs is excessive and is really bad if going to the Channel Islands, IOM or Ireland – even 12hrs is a long time
The longest notice period for the Isle of Man is 12 hours, the 24 hour notice period went out about a decade ago IIRC. But yes, I don’t particularly care about the form, it’s the notice period that’s really annoying – it’s draconian and unnecessary (and in the case of NI to Eire and back, it’s utterly idiotic – don’t they know that you can drive a car across that border without even telling anyone, let alone having to tell the police 12 hours in advance you want to do it?)
From that link I posted, it applies to some cases:
I agree it’s idiotic. It’s a very obvious job protection scheme. One would think that the police would have enough work to do, but clearly some parts of it don’t.
Property crime is way down; thanks to the collapse of IT equipment prices, the average house has nothing worth breaking into and stealing. 30 years ago you could walk off with a 500 quid VCR and get 50 quid down the pub for it. It was worth so much you would cut all the leads off and not even waste time trying to unplug them.
FRONTEX army is southbound to liberate our north frontier with Skopje
I think that’s absolutely brilliant 
Thanks for the clarifications, Peter!
So in practice what happens if I file direct Spain to Greece to a non-port-of-entry? Would they reject the FPL or..?? Is thi snew or has it always been this way?
Has Greece published a Schengen exception prior to the immigrants crisis?
So UK seems to be an exception. Is anyone aware of any other country that accepts a non-port-of-entry airport being used as port-of-entry with just a notification a’la GAR?
I have been flying to Greece since 2004 and it was never actually operating Schengen. Fortunately most Greek airports are Ports of Entry, due to the holiday flights. Not many with avgas, however…
Antonio wrote:
Is anyone aware of any other country that accepts a non-port-of-entry airport being used as port-of-entry with just a notification a’la GAR?
In Germany, managers of quite a few small airfields are supernumerary border police officers authorised to check your passport. If not, then you have to make arrangements with the police and it’s at their discretion. Last year, I was at EDKL Leverkusen and was about to depart for the UK. I called the police to ask if I really have to use an international aerodrome or whether some other arrangements were possible. It took me about half an hour to find the right police office and the right person in it, but once I found the guy, he matter-of-factly asked me to e-mail him a scan of my passport and call him back in a couple of hours. When I called back, he said they won’t even come to check my passport but will simply fax a letter to the airfield office that yours truly is allowed to depart.
Another factor is that in the UK the GAR form does, implicitly, both Customs and Immigration.
In most of the world, a Port of Entry does both Customs and Immigration. Consequently it is normal in international aviation terminology, and e.g. Jeppesen airport guides, to call an airport “Customs” (or not).
But some European countries separate the two at a given airport. (I am not aware of any non-European examples). We have had many threads on this here e.g. here
Germany for example separates the two. Italy does too. This stuff is really obscure and very few people know it. It means for example that you can do a UK-Germany or UK-Italy flight to many more German or Italian airports than one might expect. For example I used to know a pilot who routinely flew UK-Oristano (Sardinia) and he just smiled and hinted at having “good low-level contacts” when I asked him if he ever gets busted. Actually he was legal all along. Oristano has Immigration but not Customs.
Then you have Ultranomad’s example above…
Fortunately most Greek airports are Ports of Entry, due to the holiday flights
Most? That’s not my experience. Coming from the North you can only use Thessaloniki, Corfu or (Athens). Corfu is the only practical one. No?
