sts603

Assume this is after T8 would be built out?

MAH4546

BA is currently working with AA and JFK officials are designing its own annex to T8. The annex would be in the same behind-security area, but check-in, gate areas, and club space would be all British Airways-dedicated.

NDFan

Will CX move also?
Into BA space, or AA space?

Happy Travels.

MAH4546

The flights will be loaded tomorrow.

AA is ending MD80 service to JFK this November, so equipment scheduling put the loads on hold.

The goal is to have all oneWorld carriers consolidated at all the major U.S. hubs to the extent possible.

This will be happening at MIA by February 2011. At LAX, it won't be possible to consoldiate, but a behind-security pedestrian bridge will connect the AA terminal with TBIT in 2013. AA will also be using both T4 and TBIT at that time.

At O'Hare, where all international arrivals are consolidated, it will be interesting to see what happens. That is one case where I think the OW carriers will stay at the International terminal, sans Iberia who is already at AA's gates for departures.

kebosabi

Unless the US gets rid of the stupid rule where one must collect his bags for his/her connecting flight to/via the US from an international destination or start rationaling thinking about creating more secure transit areas at the airports, it won't matter if alliances are consolidated to one terminal or not: it still would be inefficient.

Take for example, my recent NRT-SFO-LAX. NRT-SFO, go through US immigration, collect bag, re-check bag, go through TSA circus once again. The whole waiting for the my bag to come out and re-checking them again is a pain the butt and a total waste of time. I wish they'd just check it all the way to LAX without the need for me to actually collect my bags!

How about for international-via US-international flights? Still inefficient here; how many airports in the US actually have airside secured areas for international travellers? Airports like LHR where one arrives in T3, stays in a secured area for transit passengers, make his/her way to T5, onwards to a non-UK European destination served by BA...without the passenger even stepping afoot into the UK or the need to collect/re-check bags. The total time between arrival into the UK and my connecting flight to say PRG would not be more than 1 hr at most.

OTOH, not many airports in the US has such system in place: every US Citizen and foreign passport holders alike are forced to wait at the long lines of immigration at the point of entry, enter the US, wait again to collect bags, re-check the bags, and go through the TSA circus once again for their onwards int'l destination. Like LHR-DFW-EZE. Still need to enter the US and collect/re-check bags and go thru TSA at DFW. Anything can go wrong: immigration process took longer than expected, bags not coming out for 45 minutes, lines for rechecking the bag might be long, and the TSA lines could be long again...any one of these can jeopardize catching a connecting flight. Passengers who need to go through all these just to make a connection in the US is not going to make it any more efficient just because the alliances are closer together.

abk

I am as much anti-government intervention as anyone you will meet BUT there are people out there who do not like us and because of that we actually do need to screen incoming international passengers and their bags because it is not going to happen on their next connection. The Customs and Tsa folks may be a bunch of Barney Fifes but in this day and age it is better than nothing.

Please note that my biggest complaint with travel is the fact that I can walk through HKG on my finger print ( not a HKG resident ) but when I land in the USA i have to stand in line forever and then wait for my bag.

elitetraveler

3-4 years away from what I hear. I believe BA is actually going to do a refresh at T7 in the meantime, and there would be a dedicated BA security channel, at least for premium. JFK and LAX are BA's most important premium markets, particularly for F and it sounds like they are going to be protective of the experience.

malcolmkettering

Somehow I don't think this is how our system came about. It has been this way since before 9/11, etc. I think it is a matter of infrastructure/staffing expense. The US opted to have a small number of official US gateways with immigration/customs facilities and imposed a two-step system on everyone. In Europe, they installed immigration/customs facilities in just about every little podunk airport so it is only one step. This probably made the most sense for them because before Schengen, the vast majority of flights within Europe were international in the sense of needing passports, even visas in some cases, for travel between all neighboring countries?

bernardd

Screening is one thing, but why subject transit passengers to immigration inspection? It wasn't necessary in the 90's (there was a transit passenger lounge upstairs in the A terminal in DFW) and it isn't necessary in Europe today. I believe there is now the capability, at least in some US gateways, to though check bags to your connecting interntional flight without having to take them through US Customs (and possibly face a conflicting set to limits compared to your final destination) though that's a recent improvement. These apparently un-necessary inspections can take hours and make the US particularly unpleasant for anyone transiting a US airport.

martin33

that seems like a recipe for disaster. How would LAX know that your bags still need to clear customs? And who says you're connecting to an airport that even has customs?

yes, bags can be tagged ITI and thus not require claiming at the US connection point. Several nice folks have reported on such trips between Mexico and Canada via DFW terminal D.

The re-screening exists because after baggage claim you are no longer considered airside sterile. Checked bags are allowed to contain items not allowed on board. If you never made it to baggage claim, you wouldn't need the re-screening. It's a moot point because everyone must go through immigration (since even transit requires a visa), and immigration feeds directly to baggage claim and customs.

Echo J

LAX? Where did you hear that?

elitetraveler

at a BA event, I was referring to the U.S. by the way

sts603

oh snap

elitetraveler

???

Echo J

Ah that makes more sense then. Cheers.