US immigration pre-clearance: controversial in more ways than one

Those US airlines and unions who are instinctively protectionist have voiced loud opposition to the advantages given to foreign airports by being permitted to establish US immigration pre-clearance. Predictably the loudest noises were generated when the UAE's Abu Dhabi Airport was among the first of a new round of authorisations.

This was, so it was argued, a great and unfair advantage for Etihad Airways, one of the three Gulf carriers targeted by the US Big Three airlines in their "White Paper".

There is little doubt that travellers benefit by avoiding the unwelcome delights of US immigration processing on arrival. But it is not altogether clear either that the grants are either unfair or - more to the point - especially valuable for the airlines involved. And one European government is philosophically opposed on the grounds that it confirms a "dystopian vision of a trans-Atlantic security space".