PRE-CLEARANCE facilities for commercial airline passengers flying to the US from Shannon are to be ready by July 29th, US secretary of homeland security Janet Napolitano said in Dublin yesterday.
Before a meeting with Minister for Transport Noel Dempsey, Ms Napolitano told The Irish Timesthe project was "well under way". She had visited the site of the new facility at Shannon over the weekend.
The Aviation (Pre-clearance) Bill 2009 is currently progressing through the Oireachtas and it is expected to become law within weeks. It will allow all US customs, immigration and agriculture clearance to be completed before passengers leave Ireland.
Similar pre-clearance facilities are due to be in place at Dublin airport by November 2010. Currently only US immigration clearance facilities are available at the two airports.
“What this basically will enable US-bound passengers to do is to clear customs in Shannon so that they can fly into any airport in the US without having to unload their luggage, clear customs, recheck the baggage and go forward. It’s a great convenience,” Ms Napolitano said.
She said it was intended that pre-clearance at Shannon would be available to passengers on private planes by October. Shannon and Dublin would be among very few airports outside the US where such facilities were available.
“It will be a great boon to trade and to tourism,” Ms Napolitano said. There was scope to develop Ireland as a hub for international air traffic on its way to the US. Some equipment was still awaited to complete construction but the personnel were already on the ground and she was confident the target-date would be met.
The pre-clearance agreement between the two countries was signed by Mr Dempsey with Ms Napolitano’s predecessor, Michael Chertoff, in Washington on November 17th.