International Departures from Weston-Dublin

[dublinpilot]

Just to let people know in case they get caught out.

Weston Airport (Dublin's GA airport) now requires 24 hours notice for departures leaving Ireland. This is for customs purposes. The details required are similar to the GAR report.

I presume the 24 hours is to allow Weston time to report the info to customs, as customs themselves don't have any notice period. I also presume that provided it's during normal working time, they might be a bit flexable on the 24 hour period.

Just letting you know in case you get caught out! 24 hours would be a long time if you only found out when you call for taxi!

dp

[mde]

Just had notice re Kilrush Co Kildare requiring 3 hours notice, this eminated from the Irish revenue so is preumeably to do with the sale of fuel going abroad--in this day and age maybe-maybe not--could be big brother

[dublinpilot]

I think it has more to do with customs to be honest.

Customs have been doing a lot of work with airfields over the past 18 months, after they were taken aback a the number of airfields that existed that they knew nothing about. That combined with the flight bound for Weston with drug that made the news meant that they had to do something.

Officially customs don't need notice, but they have got all the airfields to sign up to agreements. It's not the pilots responsibility (as far as customs are concerned) to let the airport operater know that they are departing to / arriving from outside Ireland. As far as customs are concerned that is the full extent of the pilots responsibility, however they say that the airport operater may impose further restrictions to allow them carry out their responsibilities.

I presume Westons 24 hours and Kilrush's 3 hours are just that....restrictions by the operater to ensure that they can meet whatever commitments they've signed up for.

The position is even more restrictive if the departure is to/arrival from somehere outside the EU. Then your choice of airport becomes much more restrictive. For the typical light aircraft this really means departures to/arrivals from the Channel Islands. For most other places we'd need to stop inside the EU to refuel.

dp