US preclearance at Abu Dhabi coming for all Etihad flights
All Etihad passengers heading to the US will soon be able to clear US Customs and Border Protection at Abu Dhabi Airport.
US preclearance will be expanded to all flights to the US from January 15, with the addition of early morning Abu Dhabi departures to New York and San Francisco.
This adds to the preclearance program already taking place on afternoon Etihad flights to Chicago, Dallas/Fort Worth, Los Angeles, New York JFK, and Washington, DC.
"We’re delighted that from this Thursday all air travellers flying to the United States from Abu Dhabi will enjoy the benefits that US customs and immigration preclearance offers," said Chief Commercial officer Peter Baumgartner.
"Since its opening in January last year, the US preclearance has been extremely popular with air travellers, particularly those from the Indian Subcontinent and Middle East region. More than 325,000 people have passed through the facility, arriving in the United States as domestic passengers."
Preclearance passengers are screened for US customs, immigration and security while in Abu Dhabi, to avoid lengthy queues on arrival in the US.
The US preclearance zone in Abu Dhabi has added automated passport control (APC) kiosks to speed up preclearance processing further.
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