I’m planning a trip to the ROI in a couple of weeks and am having trouble figuring out exactly what’s expected of me in terms of paperwork, notifications & locations.
I’ve a few UK <—> EU trips before, but because of the special status of UK & ROI with the Common Travel Area etc. I’m less sure.
(I’m familiar with UK procedures, it’s specifically the Republic I’m asking about)
Paperwork: I’m aware of an “Irish GAR” form, similar to the UK & EU forms. I’ve only found it so far on various 3rd party websites e.g. airport information pages, and there differences in e.g. email address.
Notifications:
Location: this at least partially depends on the answer to the above, but:
I guess all the above boils down to: should I treat Ireland like any other EU country, or are rules more relaxed for CTA travellers?
I’ll bite here. Flying from Stapleford to Ireland.
- File a Flightplan
- File a UK GAR
- File an Irish GAR
You don’t need to request anything. The reality is, Customs in Ireland are monitoring all flight plans/GAR forms. Try coming without either and you can really test them out! If they want to see you, they will be there on arrival. If they don’t – they won’t.
The reason the original post didn’t get a response is because it scrolled off due to newer posts, and I didn’t get around to promoting it to the home page banners which most people use to find out what is new 
Is there a standard “Irish GAR” or is it airport-specific?
For an Irish GAR, folks use this one here:
https://flyinginireland.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/IrishGARForm.pdf
and email it in.
Thanks William! Do I still need to enter/exit via an airfield where customs is marked as available in the AIP, even if I’m not directly requesting them?
(For context – our ultimate destination is Donegal, but I’m looking for somewhere on the way as a lunch stop!)
Re. GAR forms – I came across the FlyingInIreland one, but note that it’s from 2016 and the email it gives [email protected] – vs this one from Weston which gives [email protected]. Hence why I was wondering if it’s available from the horse’s mouth somewhere. But a search of revenue.ie only has 1 result for “general aviation”. I thought I might try to get in touch with them during the week, but the phone number they give is only open for 2h30 each day so I am not hopeful 😅 Or I can try emailing the above addresses I suppose.
I have found that when requesting PPR from any of the larger airports, they want you to email them the GAR form the day before travel. They then deal directly with the Guarda. I have not yet been ramp checked on arrival or departure.
Because Ireland is in the Common Travel Area, I believe that passport stamps are not required. British citizens have the right to live in Ireland and are not limited to 90 days per 180 as for the rest of Europe.
Shorter notification times may be possible on request.
Don’t forget you can claim duty back on fuel uplifted in the UK before departure.
SteakAndAle wrote:
Do I still need to enter/exit via an airfield where customs is marked as available in the AIP, even if I’m not directly requesting them?
You can fly to and from any farm strip/landing site, going to and returning from the UK, if that answers your question. Abbeyshrule is a good spot to stop and get lunch in the Rustic Inn in the village. I’d use both email addresses so, then they can’t say boo.
If you want a mobile number for one of the Revenue/Customs people who does GA stuff PM me.
WilliamF wrote:
You can fly to and from any farm strip/landing site, going to and returning from the UK, if that answers your question.
And what about if flying from France? Any different? Customs (in the narrow sense) wouldn’t be an issue in that case, but immigration would be. That does not seem to be covered anywhere.
Also, Abbeyshrule IS on that “Type II” list mentioned above. What about using a small strip that is not on that list?
WilliamF wrote:
You can fly to and from any farm strip/landing site, going to and returning from the UK
Aye, it does – thank you!
Abbeyshrule looks perfect too 👍
