US Customs Pre-Clearance in Abu Dhabi

[NG_Kaptain]

An interesting thread over at APC and some of the reactions of the US airline pilots.

Important Take Action-US Customs in Abu Dhabi - Airline Pilot Central Forums (http://www.airlinepilotforums.com/major/71637-important-take-action-us-customs-abu-dhabi.html)
Maybe some of the pilots from the alleged, un-named AUH airline can weigh in on it.

Important Take Action-US Customs in Abu Dhabi
This applies to just about every US based commercial pilot. I encourage everyone to participate in this call to action.


Source: ALPA

The U.S. and United Arab Emirates (UAE) governments are in talks to create a new U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) preclearance facility at Abu Dhabi International Airport—and Etihad Airways’ CEO is “confident” they will succeed. An Abu Dhabi CBP preclearance facility may be great news for state-owned Etihad, but for U.S. pilots, it means just another competitive advantage handed to foreign airlines by flawed U.S. policy. The good news is we have the ability to stop this proposal—by contacting the White House today and telling the administration that this proposal represents a serious threat to our jobs and the U.S. airline industry.

Why would a new preclearance facility in the UAE be so bad for U.S. pilots? By allowing passengers flying to the United States from Abu Dhabi to clear customs while still in the UAE, Etihad Airways provides a hefty convenience for its customers and an advantage over U.S. carriers competing with Etihad to attract the rapidly growing numbers of passengers flying from the Middle East and Asia. There is currently no service via a U.S. carrier to Abu Dhabi, meaning the new preclearance facility will only benefit Etihad—and that jeopardizes your career by strengthening a competitor and disadvantaging U.S. carriers. The United States already operates 15 preclearance locations in Canada, Ireland, and the Caribbean, but each of these airports are served by at least one U.S. airline and much of that traffic to the United States is flown by U.S. pilots.

What’s more, DHS is also seeking permission from Congress to provide more preclearance facilities to foreign governments that will pay. If successful, this “money talks” policy could lead to more U.S. handouts to our competitors. Tell the White House today to end this proposal for a CBP preclearance facility in Abu Dhabi and in other airports around the world that benefit our competitors and threaten the stability of the U.S. airline industry.

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If your pilot association is communicating on this matter, participate. If you wish to communicate directly with the White House, here is a link:

Contact the White House | The White House (http://www.whitehouse.gov/contact)

[ironbutt57]

If the US airlines management had their **** together this wouldnt be an issue, too bad for them and too bad for ALPO....the dog food union

[NG_Kaptain]

It would be great if it were to come to pass, JFK Customs the US's answer to the Third World.

[long-gonner]

The whole point of this program is to facilitate US Airlines carrying passengers from foreign airports that have many flights to the US. This would make sense, but NOT ONE SINGLE US airline serves AUH. If it were from DXB, then it probably would have a better argument.

[Left Coaster]

Gotta think it might be an issue if there were any US carriers operating to AUH, but there aren't any. So...no issue right ALPA? What a load of crap...

[NG_Kaptain]

The whole point is that pre-clearing does not take away from or add jobs to any US carrier, it makes life easier for the passengers. If you've ever had to clear in JFK you'd now what a difference it makes if you were able to get done with that hassle and pre-clear here.
If you read the APC thread you'll see one of the bones of contention is the US carriers cannot compete with us and other carriers service-wise, they pretty well suck in that department, their angry grandmothers and cat ranchers actually believe that they are there only for safety reasons and do not need to provide a service.
Their best ranked was Delta at 57 while Qatar was 1, Etisalat was 6 and Emirates was 8.
The World's Top Airlines | Ranking 1 to 20 (http://www.worldairlineawards.com/Awards_2012/Airline2012_top20.htm)

[long-gonner]

The only point that is valid in this discussion is why the US Government should pay salaries of CBP agents stationed in a foreign city when zero US Airlines serve that city. Even more, not enough US Passport holders transit AUH (compared to other international hubs) to make the program worthwhile. I go through JFK, ORD, IAH, etc enough to know that preclearance is a great benefit. However, the original purpose of this program in 1952 was to allow flights departing Canada to bypass JFK or IAD and land at LGA or DCA where no CBP facilities exsist. Yes, the program has expanded, and rightly so, but again the primary purpose of the expansion was to benefit US Passport holders, not foreign airlines. LHR, CDG, and FRA which are all served by the US majors do not have preclearance, why should AUH? Just because someone else will build the facility? As much as I would like to see one built at DXB (or AUH) it doesn't make sense economically!

[B200Drvr]

Long-Gonner, While the program might have been intended for the benefit of US passport holders in the 50's, it is just that kind of reasoning that is seeing the US fall into financial ruin. This is not to benefit US passport holders at all, you are fodder, it is to attract foreign people with money to travel to the US, to make sure that it is their number one choice of destination, it is purely about money and business. Americans always want to think its about them, sadly, American citizens are not the big spending target audience here. As for the US carriers being hit, if they seriously want a piece of the pie, start with service!! In order to attract passengers back to the US majors, they would have to compete with the likes of Emirates, BA, Virgin, Ethihad etc. and at this point in time IMHO they are nowhere close, the standard of service on US carries is diabolical!!! Not just down to the F/A's but paying for headsets and drinks, having outdated entertainment facilities etc.

[NG_Kaptain]

The host country pays all the expenses incurred by the CBP so the government and by extension the tax payer doesn't.

[Gulfstreamaviator]

A great service, that I wish more major airports adopted.

Instead of walking the Aisles on the Mall, (terminal), the time could be better used.

ALL carriers can benefit, including the American carriers, it is not just the local airline, in this specific example I can not remember the name, sorry.

glf

[long-gonner]

It's just awesome how the anti-American train is never late at this station:ok:

If this program was not expanded to benefit US Passport holders then why don't the host countries open their own reciprocal facilities in the US? Canada, Ireland and the Bahamas don't do that for their citizens traveling from the US. It really is amazing how someone can connect the factual history of a CBP program to the prematurely predicted "financial ruin" of the most economically powerful nation on the planet, but I digress. Look, if the US wants to bring in additional foreign investments, there needs to be more done than opening one CBP facility at an airport that has 2 flights a day to the US, and yes I know the unnamed will be adding more flights to NAmerica. If you want to encourage more travel from the UAE to the US it would be more beneficial to expand the VWP or overhaul the outdated US Visa application process, which would be the target passenger traveling from AUH. I'm not going to get into specifics, but believe me when I say I am all for making it easier to travel to the US, but this CBP thing at AUH is just ridiculous. Does CBP have a facility at LHR or FRA, NO! Even if the host country does bare the cost of the facility, there will always be the need for inspectors from the US bureau to travel there to maintain standards. Nothing is ever free lol.