Minister of State and Clare T.D. Tony Killeen has described the news that Shannon will shortly be the first airport in Ireland to offer full pre-clearance facilities as a “shot in the arm” for the entire Midwest region.The Minister for Transport Mr Noel Dempsey, T.D. today announced that early next week he will, on behalf of the Irish Government, sign an Inter-Governmental Agreement with the United States to introduce the full pre-clearance facility for U.S. bound passengers at Shannon Airport. Flights from Shannon will be treated like domestic flights in the US. Passengers will have no need to undergo further time consuming checks in any US airport, unlike passengers arriving in the US from any other European state. The U.S. currently has no plans to introduce pre-clearance elsewhere in Europe, other than Dublin in 2010.
“When established in the summer of next year, the full US Customs and Border Protection Inspection post will provide Shannon with a crucial competitive advantage over other European Airports when developing additional services”: he said. The Minister continued: “The provision of this facility has the potential to replace business lost due to the global economic downturn and the advent of open skies with its implications for transatlantic business at Shannon Airport. It will also give airlines the opportunity to consolidate trans-Atlantic services to and from the airport with the expansion of existing services and the opening of new US routes”, stated the Minister.
According to Minister Killeen: “Transatlantic Airlines using Shannon and Dublin will now be able to fly into less congested and less expensive domestic terminals on arrival at U.S airports. This should lead to easier access to aircraft stands thereby minimising the time between touchdown and passengers exiting the aircraft. Airlines will now also be able to offer passengers easily accessible onward connections.” Minister Killeen said the pre-clearance facility will bring with it numerous benefits for Shannon Airport and the Mid West Region.
He explained: “This will give the Shannon Airport Authority a unique selling point in its marketing campaigns to attract new airlines to service the airport. The introduction of pre-clearance will be particularly useful in the efforts of Shannon Airport to retain and promote transatlantic services. He continued: “Already British Airways has announced that it is considering a business class only service from London City Airport to the U.S. with a stopover at Shannon, precisely for the purpose of taking advantage of the pre-clearance services. Other airlines may well follow the BA example and similarly route U.S. bound flights through Shannon.”
The Minister pointed out that pre-clearance will provide the opportunity to promote the Mid West region for high worth tourism from the U.S. with the strong selling point that on the return leg all U.S. clearance requirements would be dealt with before departure. “Pre-clearance has the potential to open up other economic benefits for the Midwest region particularly for firms dependent on the US market”: commented Minister Killeen.
Minister Killeen has also welcomed the news that pre-clearance will be introduced at Shannon for private U.S. bound aircraft. “Again Shannon will be the only airport in Europe to offer this service to private aircraft owners. Similar to the interest shown by commercial aviation, Shannon can expect a significant increase in private aircraft routing through Shannon to take advantage of pre-clearance”: Minister Killeen concluded.
