VZCZCXRO3657
RR RUEHIK
DE RUEHDL #0089/01 0261403
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
R 261403Z JAN 06
FM AMEMBASSY DUBLIN
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 6422
INFO RUCNMEM/EU MEMBER STATES
RHEFHLC/DEPT OF HOMELAND SECURITY WASHINGTON DC
RUEHBS/USEU BRUSSELS

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 03 DUBLIN 000089 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SENSITIVE 
SIPDIS 
 
DHS FOR OFFICE OF FIELD OPERATIONS, JAYSON AHERN, ASSISTANT 
COMMISSIONER 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: EAIR DHS ECON APER AMGT EI
SUBJECT: CBP, DUBLIN AIRPORT AUTHORITY DISAGREE ON 
PRE-INSPECTION NEEDS 
 
REF: A. 05 DUBLIN 606 
     ¶B. YOUNG-BYERLY/WALKLET E-MAIL OF 12/15/05 
 
DUBLIN 00000089  001.2 OF 003 
 
 
¶1.  (SBU) Summary: U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) 
and the Dublin Airport Authority (DAA) have reached an 
apparent impasse on whether CBP facility expansion or 
additional CBP staff would resolve congestion problems with 
CBP pre-inspection operations at Dublin and Shannon Airports. 
 In a January 19 meeting in Dublin with the Ambassador, the 
DAA, and affected carriers, CBP officials observed that 
facilities at Irish airports for pre-inspection 
(passport/immigration screening vs. full "pre-clearance" with 
customs and agricultural checks) were insufficient to meet 
CBP needs.  Carriers, representatives added that CBP's 
inability to pre-inspect all U.S.-bound flights had created 
competition issues and affected marketing for their service. 
DAA officials replied that whereas the second Dublin Airport 
terminal might be able to accommodate full CBP pre-clearance 
by 2009, the solution to short-term pre-inspection problems 
was to add CBP personnel.  CBP officials responded that CBP 
staff could not be added so long as Irish airports offered 
facilities only for pre-inspection, not full pre-clearance, 
especially given the costs associated with overseas CBP 
assignments.  The Ambassador called for continued discussion 
and creative near-term solutions, as impending U.S.-EU Open 
Skies would likely increase U.S.-Ireland air service and 
exacerbate constraints on CBP personnel.  The DAA,s 
dismissal of CBP,s facility needs suggests it may be out of 
step with Irish Government plans to promote Dublin Airport as 
an alternative trans-Atlantic gateway in Europe, offering 
simplified connections to the United States.  End summary. 
 
 
CBP Pre-inspection: Needs and Commercial Value 
--------------------------------------------- - 
 
¶2.  (U) U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) 
pre-inspection facilities at Dublin and Shannon Airports are 
insufficient to meet CBP needs, said Jennifer Sava, Acting 
CBP Director for Pre-clearance Operations, in a January 19 
meeting with the Ambassador, CBP officers, the Dublin Airport 
Authority (DAA), and representatives of Delta, USAirways, 
Continental, American Airlines, Aer Lingus, and the Air 
Transport Association.  Sava noted that CBP operations in 
Dublin and Shannon were one-dimensional, involving only 
passport/immigration screening (pre-inspection) as opposed to 
full pre-clearance with agricultural and customs checks. 
Even this limited service, however, was "maxed out," 
particularly in Dublin, where a 12-person CBP staff rotated 
8-hour shifts among 8 available booths.  Sava explained that, 
in addition to chronic passenger congestion, there was no 
area to search bags or people, nor was there space to 
segregate suspected criminals from regular passengers.  Glenn 
Ross, CBP Program Manager for Pre-clearance Operations, added 
that full pre-clearance would require queuing and screening 
areas, interview and training rooms, x-ray capability, and 
means to conduct radiation, explosives, and weapons checks. 
Sava also observed that the DAA,s proposal to provide CBP 
two additional booths in a separate pier at Dublin Airport 
was a non-starter, as it would split CBP staff and leave even 
less personnel in the pier from which most U.S. flights 
departed. 
 
¶3.  (U) U.S. carrier representatives explained that CBP 
pre-inspection of U.S.-bound flights at Dublin and Shannon, 
the only airports to offer such screening in the Eastern 
Hemisphere, was critical in marketing their trans-Atlantic 
service.  They also noted that current constraints on CBP 
that dictated the pre-inspection of only some, not all, U.S. 
flights had created a serious competition issue.  One 
representative pointed out that full pre-clearance posed 
significant commercial advantages for airlines, since it 
would enable planes serving Ireland-U.S. routes to park at 
U.S. domestic gates, freeing up international gates for 
additional trans-Atlantic flights.  This possibility could 
mean more flights passing through Dublin to the United States 
from points in the Middle East and Asia, and thus more 
revenue for the DAA.  Another representative observed that 
the U.S. carriers, hub-and-spoke approach precluded DAA 
proposals to space out U.S.-bound flights to relieve 
congestion in CBP areas.  He noted that a later arrival in 
the United States for trans-Atlantic flights would prevent 
passengers from connecting at hub airports to hundreds of 
domestic flights. 
 
The DAA and CBP: More Personnel vs. More Space 
 
DUBLIN 00000089  002.2 OF 003 
 
 
--------------------------------------------- - 
 
¶4.  (U) Whereas the second Dublin Airport terminal might be 
able to accommodate full pre-clearance upon opening in 2009 
(ref A), the solution to short-term pre-inspection problems 
was to add CBP personnel to Dublin and Shannon, said Robert 
Hilliard, Director of the Dublin Airport Authority (which 
also oversees Shannon Airport).  He said that contractors had 
recently begun to review requirements for the second 
terminal, and he asked CBP officials to forward proposals on 
future staffing/space needs for inclusion in that exercise. 
In the near term, he remarked, the DAA did not see the 
question of whether U.S. flights were pre- or post-cleared 
"as having too big an impact" on airport operations. 
Hilliard added that there was no way to expand physical 
capacity in the pier where CBP now worked, given the presence 
of Irish customs and immigration staff in the area.  He also 
rejected proposals to move CBP operations entirely to an 
existing separate pier, arguing that CBP staff would still be 
insufficient there.  He offered to consider moving CBP into a 
pier scheduled for construction in 2007, but again attributed 
congestion problems to CBP staffing shortfalls. 
 
¶5.  (U) CBP could not add personnel to Dublin and Shannon so 
long as those airports offered facilities only for 
pre-inspection, not full pre-clearance with customs and 
agricultural checks, responded Sava.  She explained that 
assigning an officer overseas cost CBP three to four times 
the amount required for a domestic U.S. posting, in view of 
housing, security, and other Embassy-related expenses. 
Moreover, there would be no cost-savings from adding 
pre-inspection staff in Ireland, since CBP would still have 
to perform customs and agricultural screening for 
Ireland-origin flights at U.S. gateways.  Sava stressed that 
not having rooms to interview suspect passengers apart from 
regular travelers was a dangerous violation of CBP standards. 
 She also noted that congestion in the CBP area in Dublin 
occasionally led passengers to await their flights sitting in 
CBP booths, where CBP computer screens were visible.  She 
advised Hilliard to visit the CBP facility at Toronto Airport 
to view an efficient, fully outfitted pre-clearance operation. 
 
The Ambassador: Prepare for Open Skies 
-------------------------------------- 
 
¶6.  (U) The Ambassador remarked that likely increases in 
Ireland-U.S. service in the context of both the U.S.-EU Open 
Skies agreement and the impending phase-out of the Shannon 
Stop requirement lent urgency to CBP,s problems in Dublin. 
He called for creative near-term solutions that would allow 
both sides to enjoy the benefits of Open Skies, rather than 
await the completion of the second Dublin Airport terminal in 
¶2009.  An airline representative echoed the Ambassador, 
saying that the start of the Shannon phase-out this autumn 
would prompt a rush by other carriers into the attractive 
Irish market, exacerbating current constraints on CBP staff. 
The difficulty of adding flights under this scenario, she 
added, made her airline feel as though it had been given a 
long-awaited gift with U.S.-Irish Open Skies, only to have no 
way to unwrap it.  DAA Terminal Operations Manager Brendan 
Daly noted that the DAA had recently allocated a room near 
the CBP area in Dublin for processing travel documents in 
order to reduce passenger congestion at gates used for U.S. 
flights.  He said that the DAA would continue to look for 
ways to help make CBP,s current operations, as currently 
located, more efficient. 
 
Comment: Mixed Signals on the GOI,s Airport Strategy 
--------------------------------------------- ------- 
 
¶7.  (SBU) The DAA,s reluctance to consider CBP,s short-term 
facility needs suggests some confusion in the Irish 
Government's strategy to make Dublin Airport an alternative 
gateway for trans-Atlantic travel.  Twice in 2005, Transport 
Minister Cullen told the Ambassador that the Government hoped 
to draw international passengers away from London's Heathrow 
Airport with an upgraded airport in Dublin that simplified 
connections to Europe and the United States.  In fact, Cullen 
was in Singapore the week of January 16 to discuss prospects 
for service to Ireland and beyond by Singapore Airlines and 
Royal Thai Airlines.  Moreover, Aer Lingus CEO Dermot Mannion 
recently told the Ambassador that the DAA had placed ads in 
Persian Gulf countries touting Dublin Airport, with CBP 
pre-inspection, as a good transit point to the United States. 
 In these circumstances, one might expect the DAA to go out 
of its way to accommodate CBP.  DAA Director Hilliard's 
 
DUBLIN 00000089  003.2 OF 003 
 
 
seeming dismissal of CBP,s facility needs, however, suggest 
that the DAA does recognize the significant comparative 
advantage that CBP offers Ireland as it competes for 
international air traffic.  When DAA Terminal Operations 
Manager Daly met with the Ambassador this past December, he 
did not even know that Ireland had the only CBP operation in 
Europe (ref B).  Post aims to foster continued discussion by 
both sides as Ireland's airport expansion plans unfold. 
KENNY