GUWonder

I'm not so sure it's that hard, but I found that those most inclined to do the limited, fixed-period stint -- measured in years but usually no more than something like five years -- were disproportionately more likely to be mostly younger, less-experienced male CBP employees, divorced male CBP employees or naturalized US citizens.

I am sure they too probably prefer places like the USFS and DOD personnel do: places in Europe or (if different) where they think the afterwork (inclusive of sex) scene is more to their liking.

Being a decent grade USG employee in a third world country can be a pretty cushy position. It usually is.

mh3265a

I think this could happen if they can negotiate a reasonable cost sharing proposal. The US govt is looking for small wins with India and this certainly is in that column.

While the total number of PAX travelling from BOM-US is low I think US expects it to grow and wants it to grow. The focus of the relationship with the Modi gov't is expanding economic opportunity with a slower and steady increase in mil-to-mil cooperation/training.

Since United would directly benefit maybe they'd get off the bandwagon of attaching foreign pre-clearance facilities. This type of facility would, HOPEFULLY, make the BOM airport process less cumbersome....

GUWonder

Even with growing traffic between India and the US, this won't fly well. Ultra-long-haul service is relatively expensive due to higher costs of burning fuel to fly fuel. And transiting India is far from being attractive enough -- with or without CBP PreClearance -- to take enough premium market share from the GCC, European or East Asian carriers. And lots of coach passengers are going to still prefer a single connection in Europe on the way to the US to a very-long non-stop flight from India to the US.

The US doesn't need to kiss up to India or the current government. The Indian government is more desperate to have the US as an ally/partner than the US is to have India as an ally/partner. Remember the old line in the US Executive Branch? "Does India really matter?" The answer used to be "not really". Now, it matters way more, but still the relationship is not of equal relative strategic importance to both.

rishib

Doesn't DL have a direct flight as well (at least from BOM)? Or did they get rid of that?

GUWonder

A non-stop DL flight from BOM to the US? It's history at BOM has mostly been a "direct" flight connecting in Europe. BOM-ATL non-stop got moved to BOM-JFK non-stop and when that faced cuts too I stopped following DL out of BOM.

I haven't seen a DL non-stop BOM-US flight in years.

This is what I just found after posting the above:
http://centreforaviation.com/blogs/a...-service-65956

rishib

Shows how much I've been paying attention. I only fly the non-stop on UA if I'm going to India by myself....otherwise, if I'm with family, I prefer going via LH. (the kid ends up sleeping at the right times if we stop in Europe)

techblr

DL flies a 1-stop from BOM-JFK via AMS. It uses a 767 now. Has the same flight number but just a stop in AMS.

GUWonder

And US CBP PreClearance in India for DL's BOM-AMS-JFK would be basically useless, as a result of what goes on at AMS and what would still be required on arrival in the US.

I doubt UA has any interest in being a major contributor to a US CBP PreClearance facility in BOM or DEL. DL won't do it and AA isn't doesn't have its metal there anymore. It really comes down to AI and maybe 9W or the GOI paying for this. As it is now, it's not going to happen anytime soon, if ever.

techblr

True. UA, AI, 9W would be running on pretty thin margins on the uber long haul anyways. I would say this would never happen - unless there is some other hidden agenda behind it. Or may be this issue is just being used as a bargaining chip for something else.

emcampbe

Not 9W - they don't serve the US non-stop. Only via BRU, they operate that as a hub, so to speak, so folks can board in DEL, BOM, or MAA and get to JFK, EWR or YYZ. I don't see that helping them - sounds like MAA isn't part of the proposal (since they don't have any non-stop flights to the US, and don't see that opening up anytime soon) so that couldn't even work if they were able to keep people in a separate, pre-cleared holding area in BRU.

678flyer

Doesn't 9W now fly only to EWR?

N830MH

Actually, UA does have nonstop to EWR from BOM & DEL, but not Delta. Delta still flies BOM-AMS-JFK. AI does still flies to JFK/ORD/EWR.


Actually, they have stop in BRU to change the planes and they will continued the flight to US or Canada.

mre5765

Not necessarily. In the 1980s and early 1990s, my wife and I experienced situations outside the USA and within where pre clearance would not be useless.

We had an SFO/LAX/HNL/AKL/SYD journey on CO. When we landed in AKL, the pax continuing on to SYD were let off the plane and locked in a holding area.

We had a PPT/LAX/SFO journey (I forget the airline). When we landed in LAX, the pax continuing on to SFO were let off the plane and locked in a holding area. I don't recall if we cleared immigration and customs in LAX or SFO.

My wife had a journey from Spain to ORD to SFO. The pax continuing on to SFO were let off the plane, were not locked in a holding area, and so she cleared customs and immigration at ORD. She had arranged for friends in Chicagoland to meet her airside (this was before 9/11 when non-pax could go airside in the USA). Her friends were denied access to airside.

The point being that there are ways in airports to sequester pax in transit. Given AMS already has a special set up for USA bound flights (body scanners), it would be easy enough to sequester the pre-cleared pax.

Of course, the pre-cleared pax from BOM would still have to clear customs due to mingling with the pax who boarded in AMS.

GUWonder

And they would have to clear immigration in AMS if the US were to have CBP PreClearance there because the Dutch don't trust Indian security screening checks. It's not going to happen and be useful for a BOM-AMS-JFK flight. Too many things would have to change in alignment for that to even have a chance.