Akbar Al Baker, CEO of Qatar Airways, announced that Doha's Hamad International Airport had scrapped plans to begin prescreening procedures on flights to the United States.
Prescreening procedures would help passengers avoid U.S. customs lines upon arrival. Baker cited serious delays at Abu Dhabi's airport as result of Etihad Airlines' implementation of the procedures.
“Quite simply, my job as an airline is to take passengers from point A to point B, on time, and what happens there in the immigration is not my problem. If I start doing pre-clearance in Doha and my aircraft constantly arrives late into the US, which is happening now with Etihad, I'm obliged to provide accommodation to my customers who misconnect, because they never asked us to pre-clear," Baker said during a press conference at Arabian Travel Market, according to Arabian Business . "I would rather take the passenger on time to their destination and then what happens in immigration and customs is not my problem. I don't want to create another confusion or delay by pre-clearing passengers."
Abu Dhabi first adopted the system in January of last year and some believe that the airport has suffered from delays ever since.
In November, it was reported that only 1 percent of flights from Abu Dhabi to Los Angeles arrived on time, with delays averaging one hour. Etihad Airlines flights from Abu Dhabi to Chicago fared a little better at 10 percent. This past January, Eithad Airlines kept passengers on a flight bound for San Francisco on the tarmac in Abu Dhabi for 12 hours when a freak fog delayed take-off. Passengers were unable to leave the plane because they had already cleared U.S. customs.
Amid this decision, Qatar Airways is involved in an international row with U.S. carriers United Airlines, Delta Air Lines and American Airlines who have accused the Gulf carrier – along with Emirates and Etihad Airlines – of receiving unfair subsidies from their governments. Baker strongly criticized the U.S. carriers' campaign against his airline during the recent press conference .
Regardless of whether we go through customs in Qatar or the U.S., we hate delays and waiting in lines. Any upcoming initiatives to do away with border screenings all together?