SHANNON CELEBRATES 10TH ANNIVERSARY OF US PRECLEARANCE SERVICE

Shannon International Airport is celebrating the 10th anniversary of the launch of its US Preclearance service.

Established at the airport on August Bank Holiday weekend 2009, Shannon was the first airport in Europe and the Middle East to offer this service, which allows passengers bound for the US to preclear agriculture, customs and immigration controls at Shannon and arrive in the US as a domestic passenger.

The process removes any further processing stateside and saving them considerable time as a result in particular for onward connections. 

For the airlines it opened up the use of both domestic gates and terminals for these flights, and the following Shannon became the first airport in the world to offer full US preclearance for business jets. 

It remains the only airport in North America, Europe and the Middle East providing the service today, and the only airport in the world offering passengers screening to both European and US Transportation Security standards in the one location.

Acting airport CEO, Mary Considine, said: “Over the years we have worked closely with our colleagues in US Customs and Border Protection and the National Business Aviation Association (NBAA) on process improvements and operational efficiencies and, in June this year CBP extended its opening hours service for business travellers and private aircraft and offer an out of hours service to our customers when required.

“In addition, last year CBP introduced a new facial technology system to become the first airport outside the Americas to use facial biometrics to verify the identity of travellers about to enter the US.”