Originally Posted by
YEG USER
??? I'd say that when it comes to major Canadian airports YUL is the exception, and not the norm. Even then, YUL is simply going back to how things were a few years ago. YYZ, YYC, YVR all have separate domestic, transborder and international areas. YUL isn't "following the nonsense of YYZ."
IMHO comparisons to US airports are not warranted/valid. AFAIK there are no US airports where you can pre-clear immigration for another country and USA also requires all pax to go through customs when arriving in USA (see note below). There is no way to pre-clear pax in Canada without segregating pax.
I agree with you here that for TB traffic it must be sterile, since technically that part of the airport is no longer on Canadian soil. However, AFAIK the International departures area is still on Canadian soil and it's only until you are on the aircraft that you are considered outside of Canada from an immigration standpoint.
Originally Posted by
Fiordland
Segregated International, Domestic and US actually makes a lot of sense and is closer to how the rest of the world does it.
Is it really? What about SIN where you can stroll between gates to visit whatever lounge/service you want all without clearing security (since that's done at the gate level)? Can't comment about elsewhere but I suspect there are other explains of airports taking a common sense approach to travel.
Getting back to the topic at hand, the point I'm making is that it is often the case at many airports, Canadian and otherwise to be stuck in a situation where there are limited or even no services available let alone lounges. To provide another example, the purgatory known at the TB departure area of YOW which IIRC consists of a bar and a Tim Horton's and that's it! It's no wonder then that many frequent flyers travelling out the US via YOW first enter the domestic terminal to use the MLL and services on offer there which are significantly more than that of the TB area.
Safe Travels,
James