Following on from here
This
Switzerland is part of Schengen but not of the Customs Union. Therefore you can travel freely to Switzerland from Schengen but you have to use an airport of entry for Customs purposes. The other way round is true as well with people fined in France coming from CH for not landing at an AOE.
to me reads like Switzerland doesn’t operate Schengen and is thus equivalent to Greece.
Of course you can “travel freely” 
You can “travel freely” to North Korea or [insert your favourite most dangerous place on the planet].
Let me rephrase – the pilot and his / her passengers can travel freely. The goods they may carry can not. So even in commercial traffic while there is no immigration control you are still subject to customs control (granted, it is much less visible).
Schengen applies only to persons not merchandise.
Peter,
no, you got that wrong.
Schengen covers IMMIGRATION ONLY. It does NOT cover Customs. These are two fundamentally different things.
Switzerland fully operates Schengen. Which means, you will NOT need to pass IMMIGRATION if you enter Switzerland from a Schengen country. You are free to enter and leave as a person to/from Schengen countries without any formality.
However, Switzerland is not in the EU. Therefore, CUSTOMS are required. Customs means, transfer of goods, not people.
An Airport of Entry per definition incorporates BOTH, Immigration AND Customs.
You need an AOE to enter or leave Switzerland from NON-SCHENGEN States like the UK.
You need a customs airfield in order to enter or leave Switzerland from a Schengen State. Equally, you need a customs airfield within the EU to enter or leave the EU from Switzerland. Most small airports in CH have this provision, against pre-notice and against fee for Schengen arrivals and departures.
AOE’s in Switzerland are:
Zürich, Bern, Basle, Altenrhein, Samedan, Geneva, Lugano, Grenchen, Lausanne, Les Eplatures, Locarno.
From these airports, direct flights are possible from/to Non Schengen as well as Schengen States, in other words from everywhere.
The smaller airfields usually have customs on request, means with a PPR of a few hours and some with a pre-notice paperwork to be filed before departure.
Hope that makes it clear.
It’s really simple and clear but for some reason you don’t want to see it as that.
Schengen = free movement of people
EU = free movement of goods
You have to tick both boxes to not have to care about airport of entry / customs. Switzerland ticks neither box with the UK and only the Schengen box with France/Germany/etc. This means that in principle, every flight from/to Switzerland needs to clear customs and possibly passport control.
Switzerland fully operates Schengen.
If you fly from Germany, there is a concession that you can leave the EU without going through a customs check provided that you only carry travel luggage and no merchandise. You do not have to announce, declare, prior notice, get permission or anything. However, this route does not exist when coming from outside the EU — clearing customs is required. It’s all written down in a pilot information brochure by German customs.
Other countries might have similar concessions.
To me, this reads like all traffic to/from Switzerland needs to pass through a “Customs” airport – except for some special concessions.
Bear in mind this is not somebody walking or swimming. This is somebody flying in a plane which is full of stuff.
Correct. See the big hole in the middle of the map: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/European_Union_Customs_Union
Through a Customs airport, that is correct.
However, not through an AOE if you are coming and leaving for a Schengen State and that airfield has customs clearance.
In order to fly from the UK to Switzerland, you MUST land at one of the AOE’s I quoted above.
In order to fly from a Schengen state, you can fly directly from/to places like Birrfeld, Bressaucourt, Buttwil, Ecuvillence, Saanen, Sion, Thun and some others, in other words to most Swiss airfields.
Not that difficult really.
That is correct. The Swiss side requires customs for every flight from/to. Switzerland is not in a trade union with anybody. This is why most small airfields offer it, otherwise flying would be restricted to Switzerland. Unfortunately the Swiss customs charge quite a bit of money for this service.
I don’t see this changing unless Switzerland join the EU (which is a possibility). You can do things like GAR for passport checks because it’s just about checking the identity against a database. In Germany, the AFIS have approval as “police assistant” and send the data to the next border police station where a database match is performed. Typically it’s 2h PNR to give the border police enough time to check the identity and recruit an army to catch you. For customs, such self declaration is harder, the criteria for searching/blocking are not as transparent and there needs to be a large surprise element to get people from violating the law.
“unless Switzerland join the EU (which is a possibility)”
KNOCK ON WOOD MAN!!!
The main problem with customs is to ensure the ‘Nämlichkeit’.
This is a legal German term which means something like identification of goods. Example: We are driving in a car, an Audi A6. This is not an identified car. To do this we say we drive in the Audi A6 serial no. 232xxxxxxxx, registered as IN-AA 532. The customs office has to check the identity of goods.
I had some dealings with customs in Germany a few years back.
unless Switzerland join the EU (which is a possibility
No worries there are other countries to leave it, like UK.
