I am looking for an airport in Italy, close to lake Como or Lago Maggiore, to be able to go with a Seneca and having customs as we are coming from Switzerland. VFR or IFR. We want to spend the weekend there (it’s a busy weekend on the Swiss side as it is the school holidays plus the national holiday), so something with transport (taxi, rent-a-car, etc.) to a nearby nice place would be great.
Does anyone have an idea?
In short; what you are looking for does not really exist. Essentially, in Italy, there are just two kinds of „airports“. Small „sports“ aerodromes (which don‘t have customs) and the big airline airports (like Malpensa, which is the only one close to both lakes) which are usually awful and expensive for small GA. This is particularly true for the lakes region of upper Italy. And the smaller aerodromes also never have rental cars or public transport.
Realistically, yout best bet is flying into Lugano and getting a car there. But at that point, you could actually take the car, coming from the Zurich region…
Looking at the map and the airports in northern Italy, I was afraid that was the answer to expect.
There is still one advantage of flying to Locarno/Lugano from Zurich: This weekend people will spend most of their time on the highway in a traffic jam. Happens every time, so flying is faster and more convenient.
I recently used Verona Villafranca LIPX, but I burn Jet A1 so beware avgas availability. I was sure I had made a report in the EuroGA airports database, but can’t find it. Not exactly cheap, budget was about 160 EUR including COVID19 surcharge and one day parking.
I’ve heard that one can get customs in LILO (Sondrio) on request (at least a Swiss guy I know did this several years ago), but that seems to be quite expensive, as the Italian customs ask for high administrative fees for such requests. But you could try asking and share your experiences with us. 
Might be easier to clear customs in Germany, e.g. Donaueschingen. ;-)
lionel wrote:
I recently used Verona Villafranca LIPX
Wrong lake, disregard. I had misread “Lake Garda”.
Patrick wrote:
Might be easier to clear customs in Germany, e.g. Donaueschingen. ;-)That is indeed a good idea. Or he does a stop in Hohenems (LOIH), they offer also customs and it is a bit more “on the way” to Italy. I know a few Swiss pilots how clear customs prefered in Austria, when flying to Italy.
