The Swedish and US governments have, today, signed a bilateral pact to introduce US border control at Stockholm Arlanda Airport (ARN) while state-owned operator, Swedavia, and US Customs & Border Protection (CBP) have agreed on how this function will be handled at the SAS hub.

“The US is Sweden’s most important trading partner after Britain,” says Karl c so that a decision on a larger investment in US preclearance facilities can be taken immediately, once the legal process is completed, which is expected in the summer of 2018.”

In 2015, ARN was selected by US authorities as one of 10 airports globally with potential for establishing US border control on foreign soil prior to departure. As a result of today’s agreements, a preclearance facility can be built as soon as the legal process is completed.

PUBLIC TENDER FOR NEW FACILITY

Swedavia says it will now proceed to the next preparatory phase of completing the project design and preparing a public tender for the coming facility.

Wistrand comments: “The agreement between Sweden and the US will benefit Swedish access. Travel between the two countries has increased sharply in recent years, to more than 600,000 passengers, and the introduction of US preclearance will have a strong positive effect on both foreign investment and Swedish tourism.”

In 2015, about 1.1m passengers flew between Sweden and the US, with 60% of them choosing direct flights. Over the past few years, the trend in air travel has been dominated by increased leisure travel in both directions. It is not yet clear whether the move will benefit outbound duty free and travel retail sales, which will depend on how much time US-bound travellers have to shop before having to enter preclearance.

A Swedavia spokesperson told TRBusiness: “Travellers will have access to the main duty free stores before passing the US preclearance. The planning for the facility is not ready in detail, but there will also be some basic service inside the area.”

Implementation of US preclearance ultimately requires the approval of the Swedish parliament and further capital spending to complete the new facility.