Originally Posted by
HZ123
I believe that the Immigration clearance at Shannon has ceased? Is that not one of the reasons for withdrawing one of the aircraft ? Maybe the route is not so popular, nor the price!
I understood that it was removed for the afternoon flight (past tense because that has now ceased, and possibly the reason for that) because in a change of operating hours the US immigration facility at Shannon was closed for the day by mid afternoon.
I also understood at the time that this was caused by US carriers covertly lobbying the relevant government agency in Washington for this to be done as they had nothing to compete with this service. Most US-based operators (it does a lot of charters/biz jets who are making fuel stops, in addition to scheduled operations) have typically passed through earlier in the day.