Originally Posted by
CarsTrainsPlanes
What about domestic transfers? You get off the plane, take a ramp down to arrivals and can you go back to the gate area right away, or you have to go through a transfers desk? I know probably domestic transfers rarely occur in the UK, given its size, but I guess they happen every once in a while.
Depends on the airport. As you say, some are simply not set up for this, but you do get airports like GLA which act as domestic hubs for remote locations (like the Scottish Islands). You could do a direct transfer in GLA, for example. Other airports just aren't set up for it at all.
[Re: central security for Schengen] So, is this design like the domestic concourses in the US, where arriving passengers get off the plane and go straight to the concourse and can roam freely from gate to gate (like the MSP picture), without having to go through transfers desks nor sterile corridors?
Yes, that can happen. AMS is a good example of an airport like that - the B/C zone is Schengen-only, segregated, and with central security, and mingling passengers.
[Re: central security for non-Schengen] According to what you said earlier, this is the same design in use by UK airports, right? What are the major airports that use this type of flow?
Yes, this is similar to UK airport flows. OSL is like this, for example.
There's also a hybrid, where a single pier (or area) may have separate security, and that incoming passengers are directed clear of that area. They, however, mingle with outgoing passengers in a non-sterile airside area, rather than going landside. This is common in airports like FRA and ZRH.
Security check at the gate sounds odd. Is it very common or just a limited number of airports adopt this procedure?
It's more likely to be the case for airports where the majority of passengers are international-to-international transfer passengers - like AMS. VIE is like this too, as is PRG and some of the 'halls' in CDG.
It needs quite a lot of capital investment in scanning equipment, but security staff can be directed to where they're needed quite precisely, so in some ways, it's a lot more efficient than having a central transfer security point which, at peak hub hours, often cannot cope (see the Flight Connections Centre at Heathrow).
So some European airports do have level separation for certain flows (US style), in order not to mingle passengers (domestic with international arrivals), instead of relying solely on glass separated sterile corridors (Brazil style). Again, how common is this? How does it work in other major airports, like CDG, BRU, MUC or MAD?
It really depends on the role and the original design of the airport, how it can be adapted, and any additional local laws. Bear in mind that major airports serving European cities tend to be rather space constrained. Don't forget that plenty of Europe isn't in the Schengen zone, so has a whole series of different requirements. Some airports will have a good portion of domestic traffic (e.g. within Germany), others won't have any at all (e.g. BUD) or a couple of token services (e.g. AMS).
The most interesting is probably to look at how recent entrants to the Schengen zone have remodelled their airports to meet new requirements. Have a look at the websites for PRG and ZRH for examples of how this has been done.