Originally Posted by
sbm12
These are the main reasons the flows vary so much between the USA and other places.
I don't mind the US's lack of exit controls but I positively despise the lack of transit. It is a moronic policy that provides no benefits to the country but does a great job of annoying potential travelers and costing the airlines money in the form of lost business and costs passengers money in the form of unnecessary visas.
As several people have already indicated, I doubt that any US carrier has a significant percentage of their passengers making international to international connections, probably less than 1%. To redesign an airport to accomodate 1% or less of its incoming passengers is, in my opinion, not "moronic," especially if it generates a significant decrease in convenience for the other 99%. I doubt that US carriers lose much business because of this policy.