Yeah, I kinda thought ATL's numbers were pushed up by Delta's desire to squeeze every single one of its passengers through there (not necessarily international...)
I've never been through TBIT so I can't compare it to T7. There are only 4 signs down in the T7 CBP facility:
1. US citizens
2. Express lane
3. Crew lane
4. Everyone else
The problem is that the signs weren't very big (similar to the the "enter here" signs you see at the end of queuing ropes). The ceiling is also pretty low, difficult to hang a sign from. The actual wait in line wasn't bad, only about 1 hr (and on par with my experiences elsewhere.) One other problem was that the line ropes weren't even long enough for the whole line, so everyone just dumped out everywhere beyond the roped area.
I would actually call the facility "dangerous" in the sense that they cram everyone in this tiny room with no evacuation route in the event of an emergency (except to maybe storm through the customs lines.) I'm pretty surprised it hasn't been shut down by the fire marshal actually.
Now, in all fairness, my flight arrived over one hour early and the CBP person did say they weren't prepared for it. That was painfully obvious.
EDIT:
The CBP room really isn't tiny, it's probably a huge room if you emptied it out. But with "3 flights in queue" (as per the CBP officer) it was very close to (or maybe even beyond) capacity
Last edited by debracey; May 24, 2012 at 4:28 pm