LupineChemist

Not much detail but the interview on this week's airline confidential podcast has the administrator of the TSA say that they are trying to figure out how to get clean arrivals from international airports without requiring security screening, nor having to collect luggage.

In theory with GE, that would make connecting in the US an absolute breeze. That said, I can see it being a major problem depending on the airport as it would essentially require an additional segregated channel but I can see it being workable. Particularly in places like JFK T8 where the vast majority of international passengers are from UK or EU (And I wouldn't be shocked if Qatar or even Jordan were able to get in on it, too).

Also some interesting things with AI/ML regarding bag scanning and moving the checking of the monitors to a central location rather than at each lane to get more efficient checking.

https://airlinesconfidential.com/4-12-23/

Mats

It would save so much time, staff, and hassle.

It does seem absurd that one has to go through the following to fly to the USA with an onward connection:
- Interview prior to check-in
- Regular security (vetted by TSA)
- Interview prior to boarding
- 10 percent of passengers (at least) get secondary prior to boarding

After all that, then a flight, one has to go through security again. It isn't just "over the top," it's a waste of resources.

The argument was that one has access to checked luggage during customs. But this can be replaced by systems during which a passenger identifies a photo of his or her bag, and it is verified by weight.

They could easily give this a trial run with Air Tahiti Nui. Flights from Paris to Papeete stop in Los Angeles. There is a dedicated security checkpoint for those passengers. What would happen if they just skipped it?

seawolf

What type of connection? International to international or international to domestic? For the later, bags will have to be claimed for CBP. I don’t see them willing to allow clearing bags not in presence of passengers as part of normal process.

US will also mandate audits of foreign security screening procedures.

iamflyer

Checked bags are already cleared by photo at pre-clearance, why wouldn't they be willing to do the same as part of the CBP process? If CBP wants to pull the bag of course they still could.

jmastron

I haven't listened to the interview, but I have to believe the focus is on International->Domestic connections. All that really requires is a way to examine checked bags without passenger access -- and that's already done on an individual bases when bags are delayed. Scaling that up to all passengers probably requires photo matching or similar. Then it would be feasible to have passengers arriving from locations where the security is trusted be have a path directly from the immigration counter to the secure side of the airport. This would be a huge streamline for many many passengers.

Allowing no-visa transit is a lot harder, requiring fundamental architectural changes to airports and creating huge new inconveniences for the majority of non-I-I passengers. You either need to make the departure area for international flights a secure holding area (meaning passengers changing their mind or having a canceled flight can't just exit the gate area without immigration checks, and the same gates can't be used for D and I flights), or you need separate holding pens and pathways to every international departure gate. I don't think there's enough value in this for it to ever happen.

LupineChemist

Yeah, the interview basically said they are working to figure out how to get arrivals without going through security again. CBP would still be necessary, and yeah, I imagine it would be something like how pre-clearance works and just have dedicated channels where you can either exit or go directly into the terminal. As this was a TSA interview, it was pretty much exclusively about security rather than CBP. Though it might be a bit annoying if you have GE and get off the plane right away to have to wait for bags to be photographed, but still less of a wait for them to get out onto a belt, so better overall.

IIRC, there was also talk of EU removing the US from clean arrivals countries because there was no work being done on making it reciprocal where airports like AMS or ZRH allow US arrivals to not clear security at all.

seawolf

Two points:
I'm thinking preclearance countries are not drug-source countries and the preclearance photo process doesn't not scale.

Bag from drug sourced country goes to NNN-MIA-ORD. Courier gets off at MIA and out the door without regard to status of bag. Bag goes to ORD without passenger since this is not international. Someone else pickup bag at ORD. I'll be surprised if CBP ok with that and willing to let go of current process.

If we consider photo clearance it (currently) doesn't scale well. Pre-clearance bags at originating pre-clearance airports are checked-in to the system over a course of several hours. We're now talking about doing this for several hundred bags in within a short time from flight arrival.

Taking Canada preclerance connecting flights as an example. At peak times, connection passengers have been held >40 minutes at CBP preclearance to wait for the flight's bags to be "photoed". So instead of waiting within baggage inspection area to claim bags, you now have to wait in primary inspection area for bags to be photoed before clearing primary. Not saying it can't be done. Just that there is not much benefit for passenger (from a time saving perspective). Under certain scenarios, this could actually add more time to the overall inspection because you can't even join the primary inspection queue until the flight has been "cleared" after all connection bags are photoed.

GUWonder

One-stop security for US international arrival passengers coming into the US from a vetted shortlist of (non-CBP preclearance) countries/regions is much easier to do with some US airports than other US airports. The big issue would be adjusting the plant layout and flow, perhaps in conjunction with the kind of immigration and customs flow that happened at YYZ when doing say a CPH-YYZ-ORD AC+UA routing. With “Simplified (biometric) Arrival” and switching customs checks of bags to the backend (unless flagged) for whitelisted arrivals; and a transit security or exit flow — these being for those from non-white-listed countries — pre-passport control/customs, it should be possible.

There are other ways to pull this off, to some limited extent.

Mats

It seems like this could be set up for a reasonable trial:

Let's take a UA 71 from Amsterdam to Newark.
That fight arrives today at EWR C121. No need to change terminals for most domestic and international connections.

There needs to be a segregation of "clean" arrivals in the second-storey corridor at Newark. I'm not sure how that can be arranged. But there needs to be a "clean'" passageway to the immigration hall so that Amsterdam passengers do not interact with other arriving passengers.

The passengers use kiosks and clear immigration within a "clean arrivals" section of the immigration hall.

The passenger proceeds upstairs through a sterile passageway to the C concourse, never interacting with passengers from "unclean" origins.
The passenger has not had access to his or her checked baggage.

From what I can see, the issues are architectural. How does one keep the "clean" and "unclean" passengers separate?

jmastron

I think it depends how many clean vs unclean flights there are. I suspect (but have no idea the actual numbers) that the vast majority of flights arriving in EWR are from "clean" countries (especially since those are more likely to have higher frequencies too), so it might come down to designating one of the terminals, or having a few gates that can have their paths cordoned. This whole concept is more feasible if "most" flights are clean, less so if not. And as you mentioned, there also needs to be a path from the exit of the CBP stations to secure airside that doesn't allow you to re-enter from the baggage area.

Markie

A very long time ago - for a short while - you could clear immigration at Heathrow T4 with BA and arrive in the US as if a domestic arrival. A precursor to Pre-Clearance, but of course, long since gone.

seawolf

Physical layout is one issue. Customs clearance is a process issue. Bags have to be cleared at EWR (not at final destination like Schengen). Finally, cost (for changing layout) is an issue. Who would pay for this and what return would they really get from this investment?

As you indicated, also I don't see TSA allowing all passengers from all international arrivals getting this treatment (eg only flights from certain countries). These arrivals have to be kept separate.

TWA884

And then you'd also have to separate passengers with checked luggage from those who have only carry-on bags.

VFR

It seems to me that this would work best at two types of airports:

1. Airports that only have commercial flights from "clean" countries (if another flight comes due to a diversion or charter in they will have to be segregated and processed separately somehow). All international arriving passengers are directed directly into the concourse and to the domestic exit.
2. Airports that currently have 2+ arrivals halls and can dedicate one to clean arrivals, or have space to build a second arrivals hall that lets out airside. This may lead to aircraft parking at a jet bridge but passengers being bused to the other arrival hall (it currently happens at LHR for BA a decent amount, since they have three separate arrival flows for domestic, Ireland, and other international).

The problem with (1) is that Mexico is currently FAA Category 2, and many small airports have traffic from Mexico (or other Caribbean vacation destinations) which would likely require a separate immigration facility. I'm hard-pressed to think of good airports for (1) -- my first thought was BDL but that had a MBJ flight on Spirit.

For (2), the airport that I immediately thought of was ATL with immigration in both E and F -- clean flights can arrive in E and other flights in F. If the connection between E and F is maintained, CBP officers could send passengers who need checked luggage inspections along that passage to F (and presumably note in the computer to redirect their bags).

GUWonder

At least at IAH and ORD, CBP had one-stop immigration/customs which allowed some international arrival passengers who were carry-on-only to self-segregate from those international arrival passengers with checked luggage. But even at such airports which had managed to have a separate process for passengers with checked luggage than for some passengers who had only carry-on luggage, for us to get to one-stop security at US airports -- as happens at some Schengen airports of entry (to the Schengen zone) -- an airport and CBP would have to:

1) control/monitor the international gates so as to more readily block prevent mingling between"white-listed" arrival passengers and other passengers; and/or
2) set up one or more airside transit passenger screening checkpoints/routes available to deplaning passengers.

With checked luggage, the issue becomes more complex because CBP is not well-inclined to do progressive clearance of international arrival checked luggage at downstream/onward US airports, but there are back-end processes that could be used to deal with that issue with some investment and perhaps some more international cooperation on the checked luggage process outside of the country.

I could foresee MSP having one-stop security screening in place for flight arrivals from the Schengen area at times when a MSP terminal happens to have no international flights coming in from Mexico or other non-EU/non-Schengen airports without CBP Preclearance. There are even ways to deal with the checked baggage issue that is not dependent upon implementation of progressive screening and/or some kind of checked-in luggage-specific preclearance. I could also foresee ATL or DTW being able to do this.