Shannon Airport is this month celebrating the 15th anniversary of the introduction of US pre-clearance services at Shannon, in County Clare.

In August 2009, Shannon became the first airport in the world, outside of the Americas to introduce full pre-clearance for passengers, meaning passengers arrive in the US from Ireland as domestic passengers, allowing them to avoid lengthy immigration queues upon arrival and pick up their bags and go. Shannon remains one of only two airports in Europe to have US Preclearance facilities. 

The following year in 2010, Shannon Airport had another first, becoming the first airport in the world to offer full US preclearance for business jets.  

Building on this, in 2016, Shannon Airport became the first airport in the world to operate a combined European-compliant and US Transportation Security Administration (TSA) compliant checkpoint system, which means the passenger is screened only once to both regulatory standards and therefore eliminates the additional screening requirements which apply at other Preclearance airports.

These provisions, combined with the airport’s shorter queues, sensory room and age-friendly initiatives, mean it has never been easier to fly Shannon. 

Welcoming the anniversary, Mary Considine, CEO of The Shannon Airport Group said: “At Shannon Airport, our focus is on ‘making it easy’ for our passengers, so it is wonderful to be celebrating this milestone of 15 years of full US Customs and Border Preclearance in operation at the airport.

“The US Preclearance system has truly revolutionized the transatlantic travel experience, with our passengers enjoying an efficient and uncongested airport experience at Shannon Airport, while they also avoid lengthy immigration queues and delays when they land back on US soil as domestic passengers.  

“Over the last 15 years, we have worked closely with our colleagues in US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) on process improvements and technology upgrades. The introduction of the combined EU/TSA screening system in 2016, as well as the implementation of the MPC app in February of this year, are just some of the examples of our shared commitment to providing the most seamless experience for passengers.”

Read more

Shannon Airport has a long and proud history of world-first achievements. These include establishing the world’s first airport duty-free shop in 1945; opening Europe’s first sensory room in 2017 and being one of the first airports in the world to be awarded age-friendly status by the World Health Organisation (WHO) in 2022.

“We are immensely proud of our history of innovation at Shannon Airport and we are committed to building on this legacy into the future. Collaboration with our colleagues in US CBP will be central to this and we look forward to continuing to strengthen this important relationship and explore methods by which we can further enhance our US Preclearance service,” concluded Ms Considine.

Shannon Airport operates five daily transatlantic services to the United States. A new daily service to New York-JFK with Delta Air Lines commenced earlier this summer, providing a boost to the airport’s transatlantic service offering through the busy holiday period. This is in addition to the airport’s existing daily Boston and New York services with Aer Lingus and its Chicago and Newark services with United.

In a further initiative designed to speed up the US preclearance process at Shannon Airport, a new innovative Mobile Passport Control app (MPC) was recently unveiled. MPC is a free mobile app, designed to streamline the traveler’s entry process into the United States by reducing inspection time at the US pre-clearance facility in Shannon Airport. 

US-bound passengers can now complete part of the pre-clearance process on the app before coming to the airport. Through the secure app, available on the Apple App Store and Google Play, passengers can create a profile using their passport information, which will then allow them to submit their travel documentation, photo, and customs declaration electronically, removing the need to complete a paper declaration form.