Originally Posted by
j2simpso
since technically that part of the airport is no longer on Canadian soil.
A common misconception, but completely incorrect. Canadian law still applies in the TB area. There have been some updates to the agreement with the US (not sure if they're in effect yet) where US customs officials can detain certain personnel going through customs, but the TB pre-clearance area is 100% Canadian soil. If you were to steal something from a TB shop, get in a fight, or break any other law, you would be arrested by Canadian authorities. Once you go through US customs at a Canadian airport, you are segregated and pre-cleared to land in the US without going through further customs, that is all (US reserves the right to make everyone go through CBP formalities upon arrival, if they so choose, which is why pre-cleared aircraft must arrive at official points of entry in US.
Originally Posted by
j2simpso
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.
Agree that there are examples out there of non-segregated airports, but you might not want to use SIN as an example. I'm not aware of a domestic aviation market in SIN.
I also agree that additional services post-security are always a welcome benefit, but that isn't the same argument as not having segregated departure areas.