Immigration clearance will benefit Shannon region, says UL chief

THE decision by the US authorities to enable transatlantic passengers to complete all customs and other inspection clearances at Shannon, opens up huge opportunities for the airport and the wider region, former president of the University of Limerick, Ed Walsh, said yesterday.

He said the new arrangement would make a huge range of smaller US airports directly accessible to passengers flying out of Shannon.

Mr Walsh said: “We know that Ryanair likes using smaller minor airports and this new arrangement will obviously be of interest to Michael O’Leary as he looks across the Atlantic. Shannon will now also be of great interest to the Fortune 500 top executives in the world who fly by corporate jet.

“These executives like to avoid the bigger airports in the US because of the hassle, but have to use the bigger airports when travelling from Europe in order to go through customs and other inspections. But the new pre-clearance arrangement at Shannon will enable these executives to fly into minor local airports near their own headquarter buildings and operation bases.

“They now have a good reason to look to Shannon as a location for major board meetings.”

Shannon could, he said, also appeal as a hub for transatlantic airlines with all the pre-clearance services, enabling customers to travel in the comfort of knowing they can now go straight through the destination airport in the US on arrival.

Mr Walsh said: “I have no doubt the people directly involved in Shannon have been exploring the many options this opens up.

“This is very significant for Ireland and hugely important for the West of Ireland and one of the good achievements of government.”

Heretofore, only immigration clearance was available at Shannon by members of the Homeland Security agency in the US.

But under the new arrangement all necessary inspections can be completed at Shannon prior to departure.