Originally Posted by
sbm12
Well, in the USA this is the case. In the rest of the world not so much.
That's the main discussion on this thread. If you have an example to share, please do. It'll be highly appreciated.
Originally Posted by
stut
Some notes on the UK:
International-to-international transfers are allowed without entering the country. However, some nationalities need to have a transit visa to be allowed to do this.
How do the authorities separate people who need transit visas from those who don't, if transit passengers don't actually enter the country? Is it done when they are clearing security?
Originally Posted by
stut
International arrivals are always segregated from departures - you need to re-clear security before being considered sterile. This was implemented post-9/11, and has resulted in some awkward arrangements in some older terminals (e.g. Heathrow 1 and 2) which were not set up with this in mind. At its worst, in Heathrow T2, the main pier corridor had to be partitioned, and departing passengers held back while arriving passengers cross over, all manually controlled by security staff. This could also mean delays on arrival, if there were too many departing passengers to hold back!
That doesn't sound good. According to your description, I'd say that Heathrow was designed more like airports in Brazil, with corridors running parallel to the concourse and separating gates from jetways. Bu the way, have you had a chance to fly in or out of LHR's new T5? I wonder how is the whole international arrival and connection experience there, since it was recently built and was designed with all the post-9/11 security measures in its architecture.