At a recent tour of Dublin Airport, Gary McLean, Head of Operations at Dublin Airport told TRBusiness that he is expecting traffic through its US pre-clearance facilities to grow by around 10-15% each year, providing the airlines who have proposed to join the scheme actually do.

 

Following the introduction of the US preclearance facilities, the airport has seen a boost in passenger traffic as Dublin is one of only 15 pre-clearance airports worldwide. In fact, Dublin and Shannon are the only airports in Europe which offer the service.

 

The airport is already processing 5,200 passengers on 22 flights a day through the facility and 1.2m a year. Interestingly, Dublin says it plans to expand the area – following pre-clearance – dedicated to this growing number of passengers.

 

POTENTIAL RETAIL EXPANSION

As the space and F&B options increase, the airport also expects the current retail space to also expand. At the moment there is a small cross-category duty free shop – operated by ARI – situated immediately after pre-clearance.

 

The airport authority thinks it makes sense for ARI to increase the retail area as the number of pre-clearance passengers rises; especially as once these travellers are technically ‘on US soil’ their shopping allowance at the duty free store is actually greater than it would be otherwise.

 

The Dublin Airport tour, which followed the successful two-day Future Travel Experience Europe and Ancillary conference in Dublin, covered a range of the airport’s most innovative facilities and services.

 

These included the fast track and US pre-clearance facilities, and the new ’51st & Green’ lounge, which is Europe’s only dedicated US pre-clearance lounge.