Officials at Scotland’s Edinburgh Airport are pushing hard to become the first UK airport to get a U.S. pre-clearance facility, which would allow U.S.-bound passengers to clear U.S. customs and immigration before boarding, and allow them to arrive in the U.S. as, essentially, domestic passengers.
The system has been in place for years at nine Canadian airports, as well as a few others around the world, but the one that has riveted Edinburgh’s attention is Dublin, where it has enabled Dublin Airport to become a major international transfer hub, with passengers choosing it because of pre-clearance.
Adding Edinburgh to the list would require an agreement between the U.S. and the UK, as well as building a facility for it. Pre-clearance requires a secure area that is, more or less like an embassy, an extension of U.S. territory. Passengers pass through U.S. official processing and then remain in the secure area until they board their planes.
Edinburgh Airport officials hope they could get into the game withing 2 to 3 years. The same company also operates London Gatwick, and might be interested in including that airport. Heathrow once considered an application but didn’t move forward because with three major terminals, it would require too big an investment.
Passengers benefit from pre-clearance because they go through as they arrive at the originating airport, rather than all rushing the same entry point together on landing, and because they can more easily make connection in the U.S. because they don’t have to retrieve baggage before boarding their next flight.
Airline officials generally like pre-clearance, too, because it gives them more routing options. Many flights to the U.S. from the Caribbean and Canada are able to use U.S. airports that don’t have international facilities because the passengers are already cleared.
