US Pre-clearance for private flights
By Anika in Business opportunities, Members on 26. Mar, 2014No Comments
Last week, the General Aviation (GA) department of Reina Beatrix Airport opened its US pre-clearance. This gives passengers traveling to the United States the opportunity to go through US Customs in Aruba. Aruba is the first country in the Caribbean that offers US pre-clearance for private flights.
Aruba expects that the arrival and departure of private aircraft will expand. With this new facility they are able to use Aruba’s pre-clearance before they travel on to the United States. These flights are considered domestic flights and make Customs procedures faster.
The process to establish pre-clearance for private flights started in 2012. Currently, the Aruba airport is working on introducing pre-clearance for the European Union. The government of Aruba believes that pre-clearance facilities makes traveling to and from Aruba more attractive.
Pre-clearance facilities are very important for the development of Gateway Aruba. Different airlines already use Gateway Aruba to offer their passengers the opportunity to go through US Customs in Aruba and make use of Aruba as an international hub.
Picture: Amigoe – In` the presence of several ministers, airport CEO Peter Steinmetz and, employees of the US Customs and Border Protection, Premier Mike Eman symbolically opened the pre-clearance by cutting the ribbon