Do you fly to the US? Immigration you do in Europe. Here's which airports (and how it works)
Perhaps the most tedious and annoying part of a flight to the United States is the part that comes right at the [...]
Aer Lingus
Oneworld
DUB
United States of America
Perhaps the most tedious and annoying part of a flight to the U.S. is the one that comes at the very end of the trip, when you are tired and would just like to get to the hotel as quickly as possible. It is there that the star-studded immigration strikes, especially at some airports, with controls that result in long, sometimes very long, queues.
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The worst terminal from this point of view is perhaps the Tom Bradley International at Los Angeles Airport. But long queues can also be found very often In some terminals at JFK in New York City. and at the terminal of the Chicago O'Hare international arrivals. Just to mention a few cases.
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The 'loophole' to avoid the sometimes exhausting queues is to rely on the 'vip' services, which, however, have very high prices, even of several hundred dollars per passenger.
In Europe there are, however, two airports, where the Security checks and immigration for entry into the U.S. can be done before the Atlantic crossing. They are both located in Ireland and are those of Dublin and Shannon (an airport on the west coast of Ireland that was once well known and popular because, when planes did not have sufficient range to fly from mainland Europe to North America, it was an almost obligatory stop for refueling).
The procedure is called Transatlantic Pre-Clearance and is managed by agents of the US Customs and Borders Protection (CBP) for the part of immigration and the Transport Safety Administration (TSA) for what concerns security checks. The service is available to both passengers whose journey originates in Ireland and those using Dublin and Shannon To make a stopover before crossing the ocean.
Benefiting the most are, of course, passengers of the Irish airline Aer Lingus., who in the time they spend waiting for the transatlantic connecting flight, have a chance to go through immigration formalities. Once they disembark in the US, their plane will dock at a domestic terminal and they will be Free to enter the United States without any further scrutiny. Exactly as if, instead of having started from Europe, they came from another American city.
From Italy, Dublin and Shannon can be reached not only by Aer Lingus, but also by Ryanair. But it is obvious that with the former you take advantage of traveling to your destination with only one check-in and one ticket/booking.
Worldwide they are only 16 airports enabled for pre-clearance to the U.S.: in addition to Dublin and Shannon there are. eight in Canada (Toronto, Montreal, Vancouver, Calgary, Edmonton, Winnipeg, Halifax and Ottawa), two in the Bahamas (Nassau and Freeport), one in Bermuda, one in Aruba (in the Netherlands Antilles) and one in the United Arab Emirates (Abu Dhabi), thanks to agreements between the U.S. government and those of these five countries.
For Italian passengers heading to the U.S., the alternative to immigration at the final destination airport may be, therefore, to do it in Canada. But, being Toronto and Montreal two very large airports with lots of flights to the U.S., the risk may be to still endure long queues during transit with the danger, moreover, of missing the connection.
The two Irish stopovers, on the other hand, are relatively small (also Dublin) and with a rather small number of flights to the U.S., with the advantage that procedures are generally handled expeditiously.
Pictured are Cabin Crew Niamh Keegan and Nicola Carooza Aer Lingus' inaugural flight from Manchester Airport direct to New York, JFK.
Flight EI 45 to New York JFK, marks the start of Aer Lingus' UK direct services from Manchester to the United States. Aer Lingus UK will operate direct from Manchester to New York, JKF from December 1 and from Manchester to Orlando from December 11. Aer Lingus recently launched its first direct flight from Manchester to Barbados on October 20th.
For some time (at least a decade) there has been talk of An extension of Trasatlantic Pre-Clearance to other European airports.. Among the countries that have applied for this are. the United Kingdom and Belgium (but not Italy). In 2020, an agreement to this effect was signed between the U.S. and Belgium, but the procedure should be activated At Brussels airport only starting next year..