First 'pre-clearance' flight leaves Shannon

arctictree

See the RTE news report:

http://www.rte.ie/news/2009/0805/shannon.html

I'm trying to see through the spin on this one:

Limerick and Mid-West TD Niall Collins today said: 'This is the first step in a boom for Shannon Airport as passengers throughout Europe realise the benefits of clearing customs before travelling to the US.'

Why do passengers care if they clear immigration in Ireland or the US? It has no affect on me whatsoever when I am booking my flights...

Davidth88

Why ?

Certainly for the INS ( which Shannon and Dublin have offered for a number of years ) it can save queuing 1-2 hrs after a tiring 6-10 hr flight.

For Customs ( this new service ) I think the benifits are you can check your bags directly through to a connecting flight , and therefore have shorter conning times in the US . That to me would be a greta benefit

I think this is a great thing ! Well done Shannon

StephenM_smc

arctictree wrote: »

Why do passengers care if they clear immigration in Ireland or the US? It has no affect on me whatsoever when I am booking my flights...

The time saved at ORD is considerable, even the excuse of "You would be waiting for your bags anyway" doesn't balance it really.

Danbo!

What am I missing here?

Flew to ORD last august and was cleared in Dublin, didn't have to go near any immigration over there. Flew to JFK 3 years ago and was cleared in Shannon, again, straight into JFK, collected bags and left.

Fratton Fred

will the proposed LCY to JFK via Shannan use the passenger clearing facilities there as well?

Davidth88

Stee wrote: »

What am I missing here?

Flew to ORD last august and was cleared in Dublin, didn't have to go near any immigration over there. Flew to JFK 3 years ago and was cleared in Shannon, again, straight into JFK, collected bags and left.

What you are missing is now you don;t have to go through customs either.

What you may not remember is at JFK after you collected your bags you had to hand your white form into a customs man who checked you were not carrying any stray food ( or anything else ) then proceed. It's not a huge saving in it'self but now if you are on a connecting flight your bags will go straight through and you can go through the connections centre rather than through customs.

Could be a large saving of time if your connection is tight.

People get confused between INS ( Immigration ) who check that YOU can travel into the US ,and customs who check that your goods can enter the US , or you have paid the right duty etc.

dloob

Wouldn't this mean a pre cleared flight from Shannon could use a domestic terminal at a US Airport rather than an international one with all the customs and USDA facilities etc.

Could be cheaper for the airlines?

Stillnotworking

Does this mean that you cant buy duty free on board the aircraft after departing Shannon. Surely the airline wouldn't be too hapoy

Our man in Havana

I would imagine no.

highlydebased

dloob wrote: »

Wouldn't this mean a pre cleared flight from Shannon could use a domestic terminal at a US Airport rather than an international one with all the customs and USDA facilities etc.

Could be cheaper for the airlines?

Yes indeed, that has been a big selling point

Well done Shannon, a historic day

Tenger

Stee wrote: »

What am I missing here?

Now you do immigration and Customs before leaving Ireland. So you are treated as a domestic pax on arrival in the USA. Depending on your time and place of arrival you can save up to 3 hours queing after arrival. However I don't think 'foreign' airlines will be arriving at Domestic terminals.

T2 in Dublin is planned to have the same facility. It could mean Ireland becoming more attractive to other airlines for operate via DUB/SNN.

Not sure what it means for onboard duty free sales.

I think the pre-clearance is a selling point of the all business LCY-JFK flight.

LindaR

Just hope that when Terminal 2 with immigration and customs clearance is up and running the Aer Lingus flight to Orlando is included.
Why is this flight always left to clear in Orlando?
Hopefully the reduction in the Winter schedule will leave room for the Orlando flight to clear in Dublin. Makes a big difference

FlutterinBantam

If you ever landed in Jfk from New Delhi or Lagos you would immediately appreciate why pre clearance is good.:rolleyes:

Our man in Havana

If you ever landed in JFK at the same time as a flight form Lagos you would know all about it. Pre clearance wins hands down.

dloob

LindaR wrote: »

Just hope that when Terminal 2 with immigration and customs clearance is up and running the Aer Lingus flight to Orlando is included.
Why is this flight always left to clear in Orlando?
Hopefully the reduction in the Winter schedule will leave room for the Orlando flight to clear in Dublin. Makes a big difference

Now that would be good.
I had to spend an hour queuing in Orlando back in February.
The INS guys would be happy to get rid of it too.
They were pretty tired of reminding people that the form has two sides.
If you could get that out of the way in Dublin it would be great.

imported_guy

and all those years i thought it would be easy peasy clearing customs on a EU passport lol