MIAMI -- A facility set to open next year at Miami Airport will
enable international passengers to make transfers to third
countries without passing through U.S. customs and immigration
controls, an airport official here said.
The so-called "sterile corridor" will connect nearly 70 gates
and have six in-transit lounges in six concourses, according to
Peter Reavely, manager of international air service.
Although such facilities are a staple of airports in London;
Frankfurt, Germany; Paris; Brussels, Belgium; Amsterdam, the
Netherlands, and Singapore and elsewhere overseas, they exist only
on a rudimentary basis in the U.S., Reavely said.
International-to-international transfers outside U.S. controls
now can be made on a limited basis in Miami, Houston and Los
Angeles, he said.
Miami's move to offer the service throughout the airport is part
of a strategy to become a true international-to-international
transit facility, he said.
As airports such as New York (Newark), Los Angeles and Houston
offer more Latin American routes, Miami will seek to recoup lost
business by becoming a major international-to-international hub, he
explained.
Such transiting traffic now accounts for 10% to 15% of the
airport's 35 million passengers, Reavely said, but the traffic has
the potential to rise to 25% with the proper facilities.
"There is a tremendous new business that our airlines could tap
into," he said.
The airlines, however, will have to adjust their schedules for
this traffic as well as refocusing their marketing efforts with
attractive fares and packages, he added.
Maximum in-transit times are being targeted for 60 minutes
during the first year of operation, 40 minutes during the second
year and 20 minutes thereafter, according to Reavely, who said the
facility is expected to be in operation on a trial basis by
mid-spring.
"The narrower the window, the more connections you can offer,"
he said.
Reavely said the setting up of European-style in-transit
facilities in the U.S. has been delayed by outdated customs and
immigration statutes.
"I have a feeling that the statutes were written by George III
and left over as a gift to America when the Colonies became
independent," he said.
On an informal basis, the airport has set up several limited
in-transit facilities outside immigration controls, he said, such
as exchanges among American Airlines, British Airways and Alitalia
in Concourse D or between Iberia and four Central American carriers
in Concourse F.
But a plan for a comprehensive in-transit facility became
possible after Miami Airport was designated a laboratory for
modernizing immigration procedures under a program headed by Vice
President Gore, Reavely said.
One of the obstacles to overcome extend beyond customs and
immigration to the U.S. Agriculture Department, which has concerns
regarding the spread of plant diseases in this country.
For that reason, all trash deposited in the airport's new
sterile corridor will be incinerated, the executive said.
In addition, U.S. immigration will insist that airlines using
the in-transit facilities provide manifests of arriving passengers
before an aircraft lands.
Such advance manifests are part of the new Air Passenger
Information System being used by the immigration service to speed
entry into the U.S., Reavely said.
"U.S. authorities want to be able to track the incoming and
departing passengers," he said.
Although international connecting passengers will benefit the
most from the new system, Reavely observed, so will arriving
passengers going through immigration.
"By getting a lot of passengers out of the immigration and
customs process, it speeds up the procedures for others," he
said.