American recently announced that it was launching a trial of something called One Stop Security (OSS). This is the latest in a string of trials American has participated in with the US government, and this has the potential to be the most important one yet. The only problem? I still don’t understand how this can scale.
Any of you who have flown into the US from another country and had to connect know the pain involved in that process. You are required to follow the local passengers down into the bowels of the terminal, go through immigration, claim your checked bags, and go through customs. Then, you have to find a baggage re-check counter, if you’re eligible, and finally you have to go back through security to get to your connecting gate.
This sucks, and it is even in place for international-to-international connections. The US is one of the only places that makes life this miserable for these types of connections. You must enter the US as an arriving passenger no matter where you’re going. For some foreign nationals that is simply not worth it.
All of this is based on the idea that the US is great at security, and it doesn’t trust anyone else to be good enough. So instead of trying to fix the problem, it just puts onerous rules into place that ensure we only trust ourselves and nobody else.
Unfortunately, this isn’t changing, but there is a crack in the armor with OSS. If you are coming from London/Heathrow and connecting through Dallas/Fort Worth, you will be able to use this service. Here’s how it works.
- Nothing is different at Heathrow, just board the flight as usual
- Upon landing at DFW, locals will walk off into the normal arrival process, but connecting passengers will be directed to a nearby room off the jet bridge staffed by Customs and Border Protection (CBP)
- There, connecting passengers will go through immigration and even customs despite not claiming their checked bags
- Once through, passengers can walk right to the gate without re-clearing security
There are really two revolutionary things going on here (well, revolutionary when we’re talking about the federal government):
Luggage and People Don’t Need To Be Together
The US is saying that it no longer needs people to have all their luggage with them to clear customs. Presumably, this means that we are now comfortable enough with luggage screening capabilities that we are willing to make this leap.
I don’t know if there is new technology behind the scenes that allows this or if it’s just a matter of trusting the technology that’s in place, but either way, most checked bags will now go right to the connecting flight.
Of course, there is always the possibility that the agents will decide that they need a closer look at someone during processing. In that case, they can always require that the bag be reclaimed for further inspection. But interrogation and beatings additional screening can be required at any time today, so that’s not all that different.
The US is Saying That it Now Implicitly Trusts the UK’s Security
By letting passengers get off their flight from Heathrow and then go straight to the gate for their connecting flight, the US is effectively admitting that British security procedures are good enough. This program is an agreement between the US and British governments, so I have no doubt that certain ground rules had to be set up before the US was willing to sign off.
You might say, “what about preclearance stations?” Sure, there are places where people can go through security abroad and then walk right into the US, but that security is conducted by US personnel. That is a completely different thing. Edit: I have received clarification that this is not done by US personnel, but I believe it is done to US standards. Further, you don’t need to collect your checked bag but rather get a picture of the bag on a screen for you to confirm it’s yours. So, preclearance is closer to OSS than I thought.
I should clarify here that even if you don’t have to go through security again, you still are entering the US and must comply with all rules. So if you’re flying from London to, I don’t know, Panama via DFW, you still need a US visa and all that stuff. In other words, you should still look to avoid connecting in the US if you’re a foreign national.
In the end, this kind of thing would reduce the amount of walking and the number of hoops you have to jump through, but the ultimate goal for airlines has to be to bring down connecting times.
Today, American inexplicably will allow you to connect from an international arrival to a domestic or international departure at DFW in only 1 hour and 20 minutes. That may be the legal minimum, but unless you are in the pointy end of the airplane and have Global Entry or Mobile Passport + TSA Precheck, I would not take that risk. But with this new process, they could shave a good 20 to 30 minutes off that minimum connect time (MCT) and I wouldn’t be worried.
As I understand it, early results show that it can take just a couple of minutes or, well, somewhat longer if you’re in row 75 on that airplane. Currently I do not believe they are using separate lines for Global Entry or even separating citizens from foreign nationals, but considering the walk involved to get to the regular facilities, it’s going to dramatically reduce the time required for even that last person off the plane.
Airlines like the idea of shorter MCTs, because it means a shorter total travel duration, and that means results show up higher in the list when people search on online travel agents or travel agents use their global distribution systems. That means more bookings and more money.
But, Um, How to Scale?
It all sounds great, right? But there are so many issues here in terms of figuring out how to scale. Think about this. DFW had some extra square footage available in Terminal D to house the CBP operation, and it put a not-insignificant investment into developing the space. How many other gateway airports just happen to have that kind of room? I mean, think about LAX or Chicago. I don’t imagine that would be easy to do.
Then there’s the labor issue. This requires having dedicated CBP officers in a room working a single flight at a time. That is less efficient than having a single processing center, so it would require more people to do the work. I could not confirm if American was subsidizing CBP to try this out, but again it’s just a test, so that probably doesn’t matter. If you’re looking to scale, however, then there will need to be more CBP budget for that.
Lastly, there’s that whole pesky issue of… which governments will the US trust? We do have a special relationship with the UK. There aren’t a lot of countries that we can work with in the same way, I would imagine. If you think about the rest of Europe, you need to trust the security process of every country in the Schengen Area. Good luck with that. I’m not sure which countries would be willing to play this game.
American wouldn’t comment on any possible growth plans. It’s just happy to be pioneering this effort, and it hopes it can expand it elsewhere. I’d go so far to say that it has the intention of growing it elsewhere, but intentions are great until they require money and real estate. Then it’s a whole different ballgame.
