After having reached 50 posts with apparently nobody having any clue about what is the huffuf all about, maybe time to set the record straight:
The issue is all about an aircraft that arrives from a non-schengen destination, and departs to a schengen one, or vice versa, because in that case the crew technically crosses the schengen border at turnaround.
This does not affect simple incoming turnaround flights, because crews ariving from non-schengen airports technically never enter, and naturally crews from schengen flights need no control.
FR crew is based in Budapest. Depending on the destination of the first leg, they either have to go through passport control or not at duty start. When they do multiple legs with a return to base and the inward and outward legs go to different zones, that's when the fuss happens.
The EU rule is that if someone crosses the schengen borders, they must be controlled. That's what the border police say.
The FR view is that their crew never actually cross the schengen borders, because they board the aircraft at duty start, never leave it, and deplane in Budapest at duty end, so their journey originates and ends in the schengen zone. They do have a point, nevertheless FR would agree to the crew being controlled at the start of the day, and again at duty end, but the police will hear nothing about it, that is against EU rules.
From what I gather, FR is the only airline which is faced with this particular problem, Wizz rosters the flights to avoid it, everyone else uses foreign based crew. Mind you, I'd be the last to defend MOL, and as a matter of principle, I will never pay them a penny, I'd rather walk or swim. However I do think that in this particular case FR is rightly suggesting that our local authorities, otherwise highly competent and of an unimpeachable integrity, do display somewhat below average intelligence in this particular case...
Last edited by andrasz; 8th Mar 2012 at 19:45.