If you’ve flown the Atlantic to the US, perhaps you know the feeling: you’re exhausted after a long flight – and you might then spend an hour or more lining up for American immigration.
Edinburgh airport aims to solve that problem, by clearing transatlantic passengers through US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) formalities while they’re still on Scottish soil.
Preclearance is already in effect at nine Canadian airports, Dublin and Shannon in Ireland, Abu Dhabi in the UAE and the island nations of Aruba, the Bahamas and Bermuda.
To bring the facility to the UK requires a deal to be struck between governments. Edinburgh airport CEO Gordon Dewar told The Independent: “If the two governments can find that common ground, and can sit in a room and sign the agreement, we’ll be starting the build the next day.”
So how does preclearance work – and what are its benefits? These are the key questions and answers.
What is preclearance?
“The strategic stationing of CBP personnel at designated foreign airports to inspect travellers prior to boarding US-bound flights,” says the American agency.
From the passenger’s point of view, you turn up at your departure airport for the US, check in as normal and go through security. But then there’s a second security search and a US national border, staffed by American officials.
The officer at the desk will process you into the United States. You then step aboard your flight, and when you arrive in America instead of going through the usual formalities you’re treated as a domestic arrival – and can leave the airport, or transfer to another flight, immediately. Your luggage can connect through to your final destination without the need to pick it up and re-check it.
The closest the UK gets to anything similar is for travellers from England to France. There are “juxtaposed” border controls at the port of Dover, the Folkestone Eurotunnel terminal and London St Pancras, the Eurostar station. Travellers pass through French frontier controls and are treated as though they’re actually in France before they board a ferry or train.
How is the Dublin experience?
An entire mini-terminal is devoted to transatlantic travellers. From my experience it works extremely smoothly. Unlike on arrival at the US, when 300 people turn up at passport control all at once on a plane, there is a smooth flow of passengers and rarely any significant queues.
Many people from outside Ireland like the idea, and fly into Dublin specifically to preclear. The Irish airline Aer Lingus and Dublin airport are big beneficiaries.
Gordon Dewar, chief executive of Edinburgh airport, says he’s keen to emulate the success of the Irish capital: “I suspect Dublin has twice as many American routes as it would have without preclearance. That’s exactly why we think it would be incredibly powerful for Edinburgh, and we are pursuing it.”
Is there a race among UK airports to attract preclearance?
There certainly was prior to the pandemic. In particular, Heathrow was working towards the goal, because it has far more US flights than any other airport in Europe. Yet with airports making huge losses during Covid, the appetite appears to have subsided – because there are large costs involved. Heathrow’s transatlantic flights are spread across terminals 2, 3 and 5, with duplicate facilities required at each.
Manchester airport does not detect much of an appetite for preclearance among airlines.
The other player is London Gatwick, which has the same owner as Edinburgh airport: Vinci Airports. It could be that the Scottish and English capitals work together through the tangle of red tape that needs to be addressed.
How soon could it happen?
Years rather than months. Once an intergovernmental agreement is signed, there needs to be more work with Customs and Border Protection and also the Transportation Security Administration.
So if a deal can be struck in 2026, it might be the summer of 2028 when you’re cleared to arrive in the US before you’ve even left Scotland.
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