They would have to join Schengen too, for it to be an issue.
The current plan is for Croatia to join Schengen in 2015. EU (i.e. customs union) will be next year already.
However, what is "Customs" really? Unless you are into job creation (a popular activity in aviation) it is 1 (ONE) policeman.
Exactly, that's how it's done at Mali Losinj. There is one official in a barrack doing passport and customs controls. That surely costs money and I can imagine it might disappear in the future.
If Croatia removed Customs from all those airports, they would lose direct flights from/to UK, Switzerland, Greece, and all of outside Europe.
Well, Greece is Schengen and EU so there is no reason they should require customs/passport. From the UK, there aren't many GA pilots doing a direct leg to Croatia I presume. If at some point, the Schengen traffic accounts for > 90%, then scrapping customs/immigration is an easy decision. We will continue so see this throughout Europe I think.
If the UK won't join Schengen, they should at least negotiate a GAR process with the rest of Schengen. That would solve the problem.
Would Croatia really run those airports without police presence, given the "difficult security climate" (you get my drift?) in parts of what is left of former Yugoslavia? I would be extremely suprised. They have police presence at ferry ports which serve only their own islands, or Italy.
Greece is Schengen and EU so there is no reason they should require customs/passport
Greece disregards Schengen. You have to come and go via a Port of Entry airport. There is just one exception to that (a certain island which told me so) which could be the result of somebody trying to do the right thing but I suspect is more likely to be a mistake which has not yet come to light. I haven't checked what the Greek AIP says on that one.
From the UK, there aren't many GA pilots doing a direct leg to Croatia I presume
A TB20 can easily go anywhere in Croatia, with Dubrovnik being tight, and not usually doable going back due to prevailing winds. A TBM can do it easily. I don't know how much of this traffic exists. Whenever I fly down there, I see visitors mostly from Germany and such.
I have never run an airport 
but in the interests of "business development" I would encourage all traffic. Virtually all my costs are fixed costs. It's hard to think of what might be variable costs... maybe the laser printer toner used to print the landing fee invoice?
And somebody flying in from the UK has to buy a helluva lot of fuel - about €500 for a TB20. As soon as you force people to clear Schengen on their way in, they will strategically pick a stop where fuel is cheaper.
The policemen will remain on these airports regardless joining Schengen at least because in Croatia policemen operate scanning machines and are responsible for complete security at airports.
We're talking about 9 airports in total: - 7 big ones (in our scale) - Dubrovnik, Osijek, Pula, Rijeka, Split, Zagreb and Zadar - definitely must keep police/customs because they are mainly oriented to international flights, although majority comes from Schengen states - and 2 small ones - Mali Losinj and Brac - mainly oriented to GA - they have some flights from Russia which means they'll have to keep the customs.
Besides these airports you can get customs and border police in Varazdin on request and you'll be additionally charged for that. The rest are just airfields you can fly to after clearing customs.
Greece disregards Schengen. You have to come and go via a Port of Entry airport.
But this applies only to the "greek side" of the flight. A country has no jurisdiction about how other countries handle flights. So, if you fly from a EU+Schengen country to Greece, you can depart from any airfield you like. This is regularly done by people departing towards Greece from southern Italy, for example.
I don't think any croatian airport will lose customs, because, as already mentioned, they have a certain number of flights from non EU countries. The only places where that might happen are Brac and Losinj (they might lose customs in the winter).
What will be interesting to see (at least for people departing from a EU+Schengen-country) is whether in the timeframe between Croatia joining the EU until Croatia joining Schengen, there will be a provision to fly direct to non-customs airfields such as Hvar or Unije. Some countries of this type (such as UK) do have provisions for this. Also, it will be interesting to see if on the "departure side", e.g. Germany, you will be able to use a non-customs airfield. Probably not though, as Germany also requires to use a customs airfield when leaving for the UK, which, again, is the same case as Croatia will shortly be (i.e. EU but not Schengen).
Hvar is an interesting case.
I tried to fly there from the UK but it wasn't allowed (several years ago). It has no Customs.
But Hvar has a classy marina
(that's not my boat) and gets a lot of PC12-type traffic, so I am suprised that it doesn't have Customs.
Unije is a very small strip...
So, if you fly from a EU+Schengen country to Greece, you can depart from any airfield you like
IME, Greece does very much care where one is coming from, in some cases. For example at LGAL we had 2hrs Customs PNR if flying in from within the EU (e.g. Slovenia) but 24hrs Customs PNR if flying in from outside the EU (e.g. Croatia or Turkey). I think at other places it doesn't matter e.g. Corfu (which has H24 Customs) probably doesn't care where you come from.
there will be a provision to fly direct to non-customs airfields such as Hvar or Unije
I don't believe it's going to happen.
BTW Hvar is grass strip and unfortunatelly lately poorly maintained - I'm not sure if this is going to change in future ... Over last few years chrisis has hit many local clubs which used to operate airfields using government subsidies - these days it's just a history and GA community in Croatia gets smaller every day. Although we have a lot of airfields (looking at the chart) I avoid landing to grass stips because there's no warranty on their current condition.
Emir,
BTW, It's great to have a GA pilot from Croatia around here. You say
GA community in Croatia gets smaller every day
That is sad to hear. I wonder why this is. Yes, of course, flying is becoming ever more expensive and ever more complicated, but on the other hand, I guess that Croatia started off with a rather low baseline number of pilots some years ago. In general, I thought that the average wealth of the people was increasing (with Croatia shortly joining the EU), which is always good for small GA (look at the development of Poland's GA for example). Also, Croatia, with its particular geography, looks ideal for a host of GA applications(taxi flights etc.). And: I am sure that if you do it right, you could sell thousands of panoramic flights to tourists each season in places like Losinj or Zadar. The croatian islands are beautiful and would get many people on their first rides absolutely hooked. But I don't know what the croatian regs are like regarding cost sharing for PPLs or even for selling panoramic flights with a profit...
I was suprised that there seem to be few if any pleasure/sightseeing flights in Croatia. In fact I don't recall seeing any. It should be an obvious business opportunity because the Adriatic coast there is one of the most scenic bits I have ever seen in Europe. It's always a pleasure to fly down there
I don't think any country in Europe, or indeed the world, allows paying passengers to be carried without an AOC, which means private pilots could never do it.
I thought that the average wealth of the people was increasing (with Croatia shortly joining the EU)
Not wishing to be controversial but do you think joining the EU as it is today is going to make Croatia more wealthy? Those southern countries which joined some years back got loads of money out of it, and of course (due to the implicit assumed backing of Germany which was "always going to keep the EU together at any cost") very cheap € loans which they now struggle to repay. My feeling is that while EU grants paid for a lot of nice roads, etc, the really visible consumer wealth was mostly on borrowed money, funding an economic boom. But it would suprise me if there was much money left in the EU pot nowadays. Also I don't think Croatia is going to make the same mistakes as the others. My overwhelming impression of Croatia is that it is run by smart people.
Poland, like the Czech Rep, had a very long history of aviation, going back to the very beginning of aviation, and when communism ended, they still had that "spirit" and some manufacturing industry.
Aviation regulations are similar as across the EU, compliant and supervised by EASA. Panoramic flights can be offered if you have AOC. There's some grey zone for flight schools that can do a kind of "intro flight" but of course we can't do that on regulat basis for tourists without AOC. AFAIK, such flights are offered at Brac, Losinj and Medulin (LDPM - grass strip near Pula). Other coastal airports are too busy during summer and don't find such flights interesting for them and have too high landing fees.
I don't think any country in Europe, or indeed the world, allows paying passengers to be carried without an AOC, which means private pilots could never do it.
Far from truth. In Germany, probably the "biggest" GA nation in Europe, there is a concession in it's ANO which allows PPLs, without any further license, in any aircraft up to four seats, to charge for their flights (as much as you want, not only costshare) as long as you don't do it "gewerblich", which, for lack of a better translation, means something like "commercially". What is gewerblich or not is the defined in the law as well. For example, if you don't do it regularly, it is not gewerblich. So, if you only do it occasionally, you can charge, again, as much as you want.
Now I realise this is probably the most accomodating legislation in Europe, and most countries are much much stricter than that, but again, that's how it currently is in Germany. That's also why we have a lot of opposition against the new european legislation which will restrict this.
Back to Croatia, I do realize that even if they had the german legislation this wouldn't allow one to set up a panoramic flight business purely with a PPL and without an AOC, as this business would of course require a certain continuity and also advertisment, but still, it would allow a lot of private pilots to keep their costs down by flying with friends and acquaintances (and receiving at least the flight's cost). This is what keeps many small flying clubs alive in Germany.
