What Could Possibly Go Wrong?: You Can Now Pre-Clear Customs in the Middle-East

[JCMach1]

That's right all that baggage gets pre-cleared and NOT checked again upon entering the US. Of course, no one could possibly slip anything inside while bags sit at the airport in Abu Dhabi, or Dubai...

Emirates passengers could be next in line to avail of the American pre-clearance customs procedures in the UAE following the opening of a post in Abu Dhabi last week.

Passengers began using the region’s first United States pre-clearance customs checkpoint at Abu Dhabi International on January 24. The post, manned by US customs officials, enables passengers to skip long queues on arrival in the US by clearing them for immigration prior to departing from Abu Dhabi.

“Dubai International is well-positioned to be the next port of call for US pre-clearance with three airlines, Emirates, United and Delta, soon operating services to a total of nine destinations in the United States,” an Emirates spokesperson told Gulf News in an e-mail... http://gulfnews.com/business/aviation/coming-soon-clear-us-customs-at-dubai-international-1.1283050

[TwilightGardener]

1. I remember reading somewhere that for a while, Muslim Brotherhood members from Egypt

were allowed to go through relaxed security procedures in US airports--don't know if that was true or just rumor. But none of this seem like good ideas.

[mn9driver]

2. The reason this was approved is because of Boeing. I

Emirates announced huge orders for aircraft last fall. They made it clear that those orders would be cancelled if they didn't get the preclearance facility.

The next step will be to demand unlimited access to US and European markets. They'll get that too. In another generation they will probably have destroyed the US airline industry and all of the jobs that go with it.

But Boeing stockholders are happy right now, so it's all good.

[cordelia]

3. It's already started.

Emirates is already operating daily service between JFK and Milan Malpensa - in competition with Delta, American, and Alitalia. And United to Newark.

Suspect they will look for additional routes from Europe to the U.S., maybe Canada and Latin America as well.

[JCMach1]

4. UAE will soon get Schengen visa on arrival...

so yeah... what could go wrong...

[Blue_Tires]

5. Emirates and Etihad are flush with cash and have the most financial flexibility,

with state-of-the-art facilities, the newest airframes, the youngest workforce (no legacy pension costs just yet) and are about to get balls-deep in the lucrative routes to Europe/The Americas...

It's natural to think this represents a major security risk, but believe me, the powers that be in the UAE are *not* about to let some fanatical weirdos shit in the money bed (at least for the foreseeable future), politics be damned....