While U.S. Customs Pre-Clearance procedures are in effect at Ireland’s Shannon Airport as of March 1, restricted hours of 7 a.m. to 3 p.m. may be limiting the traffic through the process, officials at Universal Weather & Aviation and Signature Flight Support told Aviation Week yesterday.

Limiting the process to non-revenue Part 91 traffic only could also be a contributing factor to the slow start. As of yesterday, Signature had not pre-cleared any aircraft and Universal had done only two.

“We hope to Part 135 as soon as we can, as it’s 60 percent of our business,” said Brendan O’Grady, managing director for Universal. He said the process is taking roughly an hour and a half at present. Aircraft arrive and are serviced, while passengers may disembark and visit the duty-free center. After the aircraft is serviced, passengers and crew, together with baggage, are transported to the new pre-clearance facility for inspection and forms, then returned to the aircraft, where inspectors conduct an onboard procedure to detect radiation.

“There’s interest [in pre-clearance], definitely,” said Mary Miller, vice president for customer relations with Signature. “We have a customer who wants it next week, but their departure is outside the [time] window.” Miller says her company will be talking about pre-clearance at NBAA’s International Operators Conference March 20-April 1 I New Orleans.

Pre-clearance procedures allow operators to completely process through U.S. Customs just as they would at a port of entry airport in the United States. Aircraft are still currently limited by trash disposal regulations to 200 approved airports stateside that are equipped to meet the rules set by the U.S. Department of Agriculture for incineration of non-domestic waste.

Photo credit: Shannon Airport