Ireland to sign pre-clearance agreement next week

In a surprise announcement today, Minister for Transport Noel Dempsey announced in Shannon that next week he will be signing an Inter-Governmental agreement with the US Secretary of Homeland Security, Michael Chertoff which will allow for full pre-clearance at Shannon Airport from summer 2009 and at Dublin from 2010.

Speaking today, Minster Dempsey said " The U.S. authorities have told us that they currently have no plans to extend pre-clearance elsewhere in Europe. This should give Ireland a comparative advantage in the highly competitive trans-Atlantic aviation sector. Passengers from Shannon and Dublin airports will benefit from uninterrupted passage through US airports on arrival saving time and hassle. Trans Atlantic airlines will benefit from being able to fly into less congested and less expensive domestic terminals on arrival at U.S airports. This should lead to easier access to aircraft stands thereby minimising the time between touchdown and passengers disembarking. In the competitive field of aviation time means money for airline operators. This Agreement will help operators save valuable time.”

Currently Shannon and Dublin only offer immigration clearance and passengers must queue to clear customs and agriculture inspection when they arrive in the US.

In addition to passenger traffic originating in Ireland, the Shannon facility is expected to be especially attractive to executive jet traffic originating East of the Continental US. This traffic is currently restricted to landing in US airports which have full clearance facilities before travelling onwards to their eventual destination.

Today's announcement was not expected since the Government had previously bumped the passing of the necessary legislation off the list in the current Dail session. There were also rumours that the US authorities were unhappy with the delay by the Irish authorities, or is it a case of putting pen to paper before the US administration changes ?