and what happens if lets say an aircraft comes in from another country, and then for the next flight it does is a domestic? Would it have to move gates so it's in a schengen securre/clean area?

No, the arriving passengers need to be separated from the departing ones. Often you can notice that there are two different ways on the jet bridges when exiting the plane - one leading straight into the Schengen part of the terminal, the other one going to the non-Schengen part or passport control.
For example, in MUC and FRA (Terminal A (Schengen) and Z (non-Schengen)) are different floors in the same building, so the same physical parking position for the plane corresponds to two gates (for example A52 and Z52 in FRA), and depending where the plane goes next you board either from the lower (Schengen) level (=gate A52) or the upper floor (= gate Z52, non-Schengen). No need to move the plane - just keep the passengers separated.

it depends on the airport and where in the airport

At VIE the F gates are schengen, G gates are non schengen, they are the same gates one level above the other so those on G need to go down a level to get to the jetty. The secure door at the F gate will be closed.

at WAW it is all on one level with schengen at one end and non schengen at the other. If aircraft have arrived non schengen but depart schengen, at least one set of passengers will get bused to/from the aircraft and it will be stairs rather than the jetty.

Happens reasonably often at OSL, and it's the arrivers rather than the departers that get bussed in my experience.

do all european airports have a schengen part of the terminal with special shops in or is it just AMS? With the rest of european airports just having special gates that are schengen/non-schengen? sorry for my ignorance

Airports within the schengen countries (not all european countries are part of schengen) will have schengen gates before passport control and non schengen gates after passport control.

most european airports are giant shopping malls. All have shops in the schengen departure area, the bigger ones will also have them in the non schengen departure area.


**some smaller airports may only have schengen gates

*** typically the bigger airport the bigger the number of shops, AMS is one of the bigger hub airports

I once had a connecton MAD-CDG-LHR which, if I recall correctly, involved the MAD-CDG flight arrived at Terminal 2F (Schengen), transferring via Border Control/Security to Terminal 2E (Non-Schengen) for the CDG-LHR flight, then being driven back to terminal 2F, parking alongside the stand and using the staircase up to the jet bridge in order to join the aircraft.

At LHR T2 and noticed there is a small area of UK Border desks - who exactly are they checking? Pax arriving on a Domestic or arriving on an Int'l potentially departing for a domestic? Never seen an immigration desk inside/before departures in the UK before?

Arriving from the UK at BRU I have noticed that we would often be parked at the Schengen pier, but then were bussed to to the non-Schengen pier. That way the plane could indeed do a subsequent Schengen flight. BRU does not have gates that can be connected to both Schengen and non Schengen concourses.

In T2 departures? Those could only be used for spot checks on departing passengers.

Passengers arriving on a domestic will be directed straight to landside, they can only go to departures if connecting.

Passengers arriving from outside the UK and connecting to a domestic will go through immigration in the Flight Connections area, so when they arrive in airside departures they will already be considered "inside the UK" (despite then mingling with passengers who are "outside the UK").

Biometrics are used at domestic gates to confirm the "inside the UK" status before allowing boarding.

Of course nothing to do with Schengen.

so where would the passengers passing through those airside border desks be coming/arriving from?

when I flew from Luton to Edinburgh we were sent into departures upon exiting the plane

That's because LTN and EDI are both inside the UK.

EDI does not allow international transit. Everyone who is in the departures area of EDI is inside the UK. If you arrived from outside the CTA you will have to go through immigration even when connecting.

several uk airports offer domestic arruvals direct into the departure area

the thread topic is schengen clean. uk domestuc arrivals are uk clean

but when arriving from Edinburgh into luton you go straight to arrivals and not through the terminal I think