Geneva Airport

stopthepanic

A colleague recently told me that it was possible to fly to Geneva Airport and actually park the a/c in France and that EasyJet fly to the french part of the airport, making it an internal EU flight.

So curiosity got the better of me and I started looking it up on Google maps.
To me it does not look like what he is saying is true, the airport all appears to be within the borders of Switzerland making the whole airport 'Non EU'.

Can anyone verify his claim?

another thing I noticed on google maps was, if you keep zooming in on the airfield, the high resolution satellite image is replaced by a much lower altitude (non satellite) higher resolution picture. This seems to be the case for most of Geneva.
just zoom in on this link
https://maps.google.com/maps?q=geneva&hl=en&ll=46.230577,6.104836&spn=0.00285,0.005284&sll=37.0625,-95.677068&sspn=37.735377,86.572266&hnear=Geneva,+Canton+of+Geneva,+Switzerland&t=h&z=18

is anyone aware of this imagery available at other cities?

sunnysoutheast

stopthepanic wrote: »

A colleague recently told me that it was possible to fly to Geneva Airport and actually park the a/c in France and that EasyJet fly to the french part of the airport, making it an internal EU flight.

So curiosity got the better of me and I started looking it up on Google maps.
To me it does not look like what he is saying is true, the airport all appears to be within the borders of Switzerland making the whole airport 'Non EU'.

Can anyone verify his claim?

another thing I noticed on google maps was, if you keep zooming in on the airfield, the high resolution satellite image is replaced by a much lower altitude (non satellite) higher resolution picture. This seems to be the case for most of Geneva.
just zoom in on this link
https://maps.google.com/maps?q=geneva&hl=en&ll=46.230577,6.104836&spn=0.00285,0.005284&sll=37.0625,-95.677068&sspn=37.735377,86.572266&hnear=Geneva,+Canton+of+Geneva,+Switzerland&t=h&z=18

is anyone aware of this imagery available at other cities?

There is a French side and a swiss side, you have to make sure you exit the right way for hire cars etc. Strictly speaking you aren't supposed to take swiss cars to France etc.

Bit weird round there with all the border crossings, used to search you for meat etc but seem more relaxed now.

tricky D

You might also need to consider border charges. My sister used to live in Chamonix and had some piece of paper to be exempt from some border crossing charge which iirc €25. Something along those lines.

irishdub14

When you zoom in you see the 45 degree imagery. You can go back to satellite by clicking the '45 degree' button under traffic on the top right.

http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?ie=UTF8&t=h&oe=UTF8&msa=0&msid=112099477591857711257.00048ad05c320f746f5c2

Turbine

You only need to look at Google Maps to see the whole airport is on the Swiss side of the border, so there's no way an airline could avoid parking fees by parking on 'French soil'. And why would an airline avoid those fees anyway? Since when did France have a national policy of not charge parking fees at airports? Even if it was possible, do you not think every airline would be doing it?

And that's before mentioning the fact that easyJet Switzerland (who operate out of Geneva) is a Swiss franchisee for easyJet, so they're a completely separate airline to easyJet PLC.

And then there's also the fact that Switzerland has signed up to most of the EU laws relating to the free movement of goods, persons, air traffic, agriculture etc., and is also a member of the Schengen Area. So a flight from Belgium to Switzerland is effectively an intra-EU flight.

So your colleague is talking *****.

Lapin

Turbine wrote: »

You only need to look at Google Maps to see the whole airport is on the Swiss side of the border.


So a flight from Belgium to Switzerland is effectively an intra-EU flight.

So your colleague is talking sh**e.

Jesus. Who took the cherry out of your cake ?

Why the need for such a hostile reply to a simple obvervation?

For the record, Switzerland is not in the EU, and Schengen or no Schengen, no way could a flight from Belguim to Switzerland be effectively described an intra EU route.


There are French and Swiss sectors in Geneva Airport.

Click the link and scroll down -

http://www.gva.ch/en/desktopdefault.aspx/tabid-60/

Now cheer up and get your facts right the next time you think about insulting others.



.

Turbine

Lapin wrote: »

Jesus. Who took the cherry out of your cake ?

Why the need for such a hostile reply to a simple obvervation?

For the record, Switzerland is not in the EU, and Schengen or no Schengen, no way could a flight from Belguim to Switzerland be effectively described an intra EU route.

http://www.gva.ch/en/desktopdefault.aspx/tabid-60/
Now cheer up.

Just pointing out the nonsense of the claim being made.

And I never claimed it was in the EU, and yes you can describe it as an intra-EU flight because Switzerland is signed up to EU laws by way of bilateral treaties.

Also there's a difference between passengers going through different security in the terminal and an airline parking in a designated area on the apron to avoid paying fees.

sunnysoutheast

Turbine wrote: »

You only need to look at Google Maps to see the whole airport is on the Swiss side of the border, so there's no way an airline could avoid parking fees by parking on 'French soil'. And why would an airline avoid those fees anyway? Since when did France have a national policy of not charge parking fees at airports? Even if it was possible, do you not think every airline would be doing it?

And that's before mentioning the fact that easyJet Switzerland (who operate out of Geneva) is a Swiss franchisee for easyJet, so they're a completely separate airline to easyJet PLC.

And then there's also the fact that Switzerland has signed up to most of the EU laws relating to the free movement of goods, persons, air traffic, agriculture etc., and is also a member of the Schengen Area. So a flight from Belgium to Switzerland is effectively an intra-EU flight.

So your colleague is talking sh**e.

Somewhat aggressive response to a reasonable question IMO, the situation at Geneva confuses many people.

There is a French side (Ferney) and a Swiss side to the airport. It is possible to exit on the French side and, at least formally, stay within the EU at all times. A few years ago, I'm not sure about now, it was much cheaper to fly on a flight that allowed you to arrive at the French side, e.g. get Air France out of Heathrow and change at Paris or Lyon, than to fly direct and land on the Swiss side which meant a long queue to cross the border.

In practical terms these days the big difference is car hire, a swiss car might not have the vignette to allow you to use the French autoroutes (arrive at a toll booth without one and you'll be unpleasantly surprised). You also can't always go back through the airport if you come "out" the wrong side, you have to get a taxi......

SSE

Turbine

sunnysoutheast wrote: »

There is a French side (Ferney) and a Swiss side to the airport. It is possible to exit on the French side and, at least formally, stay within the EU at all times.

Thats not what the OP is talking about though. The OP claims that someone told him easyJet Switzerland, i.e. a Swiss airline, can park on a French designated area of the apron and somehow avoid parking fees at Geneva, in order to be treated as an intra-EU flight even though the airline is Swiss and Switzerland is signed up to the same EU freedom of movement laws as Belgium or France.

stopthepanic

Turbine wrote: »

Thats not what the OP is talking about though. The OP claims that someone told him easyJet Switzerland, i.e. a Swiss airline, can park on a French designated area of the apron and somehow avoid parking fees at Geneva, in order to be treated as an intra-EU flight even though the airline is Swiss and Switzerland is signed up to the same EU freedom of movement laws as Belgium or France.

Hostile response to say the least.

At no stage did I mention EasyJet Switzerland, you did! I mentioned EasyJet.
At no stage did I mention anything about an airline trying to avoid fees, you did that too.
My mention of EU/Non EU was to do with the ability to buy duty free as Switzerland is NON EU and France is EU.

So maybe you should respond to the contents of the posts instead of ranting about what you think is in them.

Turbine

stopthepanic wrote: »

Hostile response to say the least.

Relax, any "hostility" there was in my post was not aimed at you, so don't take it so personal, hence why I said your colleague was talking ****, not you (I recognise you were just asking the question). I was responding to the claims made by someone you know, which I thought were nonsense.

stopthepanic wrote: »

At no stage did I mention EasyJet Switzerland, you did! I mentioned EasyJet.

I know, my point was that Geneva is a base for easyJet Switzerland, who are a Swiss airline that operate as a franchisee for easyJet based in the UK, which defeats any purpose as to why they would want to park on French soil.

stopthepanic wrote: »

At no stage did I mention anything about an airline trying to avoid fees, you did that too.

You're right, apologies, I misread your post.

stopthepanic wrote: »

My mention of EU/Non EU was to do with the ability to buy duty free as Switzerland is NON EU and France is EU.

Maybe you should've made that clear by mentioning that as opposed to aircraft parking up on French parts of the airport in order to be treated as an intra-EU flight.

stopthepanic wrote: »

So maybe you respond to the contents of the posts instead of ranting about what you think is in them.

I did just that and if you read my posts above, you'll find I pointed out that while Switzerland is not in the EU, it is part of the EEA and EFTA, and is signed up to most of EU laws, particularly relating to the freedom of movement.

stopthepanic

[QUOTE=Maybe you should've made that clear by mentioning that as opposed to aircraft parking up on French parts of the airport in order to be treated as an intra-EU flight.[/QUOTE]


I don't think this would have gotten any less of an OTT response from you.

Everyone else seemed to 'get' the question.

Despite your opinion, my colleague was correct in some sense, based on what sunnysoutheast posted.

sunnysoutheast

Turbine wrote: »

Thats not what the OP is talking about though. The OP claims that someone told him easyJet Switzerland, i.e. a Swiss airline, can park on a French designated area of the apron and somehow avoid parking fees at Geneva, in order to be treated as an intra-EU flight even though the airline is Swiss and Switzerland is signed up to the same EU freedom of movement laws as Belgium or France.

Nobody mentioned parking fees or easyJet Switzerland except you.

We all appreciate a civilised discussion.

SSE

Turbine

sunnysoutheast wrote: »

Nobody mentioned parking fees or easyJet Switzerland except you.

We all appreciate a civilised discussion.

SSE

Get off your high horse, I've already explained why I mentioned easyJet Switzerland.

stopthepanic wrote: »

Despite your opinion, my colleague was correct in some sense, based on what sunnysoutheast posted.

What can I say? I'm sorry I understood what you said and not what you meant.:rolleyes:

What SSE posted was in relation to being able to exit the airport on the French side of the border, yet your question (which wasn't in your OP and only clarified later on) is to do with duty free. I don't see how the two are related or what aircraft parking on a particular area of an apron has to do with that?

Your colleagues claim regarding airlines parking in a particular area to stay in France and be treated as an intra-EU flight is still nonsense, again for reasons I've already mentioned above.

KCAccidental

perhaps he meant EuroAirport Basel-Mulhouse-Freiburg?

that has a dedicated swiss customs area connected to Basel by a special road, even though the airport is in French territory.

and easyjet switzerland fly out of there :P

Su Campu

If I can break up this handbagging for a minute...

Bing Maps have Aerial photography from four directions for many areas. See Dublin Airport here. Use the rotating tool on the top right to view from North, South, East and West.

And the imagery in the original link above (before zooming in) is also taken from aircraft and not satellite. Only the satellite imagery is used when you zoom further out as the resolution is nowhere near high enough for close-in shots.

Here's the airport info from the AIP. It doesn't mention anything about French vs Swiss, but that's not saying the fee thing doesn't exist.

Carawaystick

You need a vignette to use a Swiss motorway, French motorways take cash

pclancy

Jeez its an Internet forum with posts made up of texts, how did people take agression and insult from those words?

Please use report post if you take an issues with someones words, don't clog up threads with needless "handbagging" as Su rightly calls it.

roundymac

Carawaystick wrote: »

You need a vignette to use a Swiss motorway, French motorways take cash

At the risk of making a compleate arse of myself, what is a vignette?

kirving

Slightly off topic, but if I'm flying from Ireland to Switzerland, can I buy duty free goods?

Thoie

Kevin Irving wrote: »

Slightly off topic, but if I'm flying from Ireland to Switzerland, can I buy duty free goods?

Generally, yes. I fly DUB-GVA relatively regularly and always get duty free, except for one occasion when I somehow managed to go wrong and find myself on the "French" side. To this day I've no idea how I went wrong, as all the default routes through the airport keep you on the Swiss side.

You can buy duty free departing from Dublin/Cork (show your ticket), and on the plane (if they offer it - Aer Lingus do). You can also buy duty free in GVA on your way back (show your ticket), but I've found the duty free there to be more expensive, so know your prices.

Thoie

roundymac wrote: »

At the risk of making a compleate arse of myself, what is a vignette?

It's just a sticker on your windscreen with the year and some watermarking on it. A little bit like a tax disc, but a smaller sticker, rather than a loose piece of paper.

kirving

Thanks, I'll check prices of cameras in Dublin so, although I can't see myself saving much!