The Facilitation Committee met in Austin today to discuss ACI-NA and airport efforts to improve the facilitation of passengers and cargo.
ACI-NA outlined its recent efforts to press Congress for increased funding for additional CBP officers to reduce passenger lines and expand hours of coverage at airports and to require CBP to share more information on how it allocates CBP officers. Attendees also learned about ACI-NA efforts to eliminate the re-screening of connecting baggage from Canada, which would reduce passenger connecting times, decrease the number of misconnected bags and improve the use of TSA personnel.
Participants agreed on need for airports and their business and tourism partners to promote the benefits of the Global Entry program. Global Entry allows U.S. citizens who have been vetted and approved by CBP to bypass lines at the CBP counters by using Global Entry. Increasing the number of Global Entry passengers also would allow CBP officers to process other passengers more efficiently.
The Committee was briefed about the challenges confronted by user fee airports in dealing with CBP. User fee airports have small international passenger volumes and are required to enter into contracts with CBP requiring the airports to pay for the CBP officers and services. ACI-NA is considering hosting a webinar for user fee airports.
– Diane Peterson