Air India seeks US pre-clearance

In light of growing popularity of US destinations and rising competition from Etihad-Jet, Air India has put forth its requisition to the external ministry.

The request is to deploy a pre-clearance facility for its US-bound flyers from key domestic airports.

The US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) facility has been asked to offer this facility at Mumbai and Delhi airports to begin with. The process will ease passengers’ woes of US pre-clearance wherein passengers can complete the immigration process at these airports itself.

“We have requested the MEA to have this facility as it would enable our flyers land in the US as domestic passengers and, if granted, this would save considerable time,” Air India sources were quoted in Feonline.

Focusing on the potential of the route, Centre for Asia Pacific Aviation (CAPA) reported that passengers from India contributed 36% to Emirates and Etihad’s US traffic in a 12-month period ending August 2014.

sourced:traveldailymedia.com