Customs and Border Protection (CBP) is using technology to reduce lines. (Image: CBP)
The federal Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agency has been deploying new technology in recent years to help arriving travelers spend less time waiting in line, but the effort faces an uphill battle in the face of increasing passenger numbers. And a new study finds some airports have a bigger problem than others.
According to a new analysis conducted for the Global Gateway Alliance, a private-sector group devoted to easing air travel hassles in the New York area, New York JFK suffers from the longest Customs waiting times of the 10 largest airports for international arrivals – and San Francisco International ranked a close second.
The group found that the average waiting time for international arrivals to make it through Customs was 25.04 minutes at JFK (up 13 percent from a year earlier) and 24.66 minutes at San Francisco. Other major airports with average waiting times of more than 20 minutes included Miami at 22.43 and Los Angeles International at 20.14. Those were average times; the group found that the maximum waiting time was almost 55 minutes at JFK and 54.3 minutes at Miami International.
Atlanta fared relatively well-– with average wait times only half as long as New York or San Francisco.
The study is just a reminder that Customs and Border Protection’s Global Entry trusted traveler program ($100/5 years) – which lets participants process themselves at a kiosk and bypass Customs agents — is really worth the investment.
To accommodate a growing Global Entry membership – the program now has 2.6 million members, CBP said – the agency added five more Global Entry locations last year. The program is now available at 47 U.S. airports and 13 overseas Preclearance stations, covering more than 99 percent of inbound travelers, CBP said.
CBP recently reported that the number of international passengers arriving at U.S. airports last year topped 112 million, an increase of 5.1 percent over 2014. The agency said that in spite of that increase, the average waiting time to clear Customs at the top 10 airports was down 3 percent last year.
Directional signs to Global Entry kiosks at SFO
For non-Global Entry travelers, CBP has been working with airports to speed up the lines by deploying technology like Automated Passport Control kiosks, which let travelers input their own information and obtain a receipt to hand to the Customs agent; and the Mobile Passport Control smartphone app, which does the same thing. The app is now in use at Atlanta, Chicago O’Hare, Ft. Lauderdale, San Francisco, Miami and Seattle-Tacoma. CBP said it expanded the Automated Passport Control kiosks to 14 more locations last year, and it noted they have reduced wait times by up to 27 percent.
The biggest increase in international arrivals last year was at SFO, up 9 percent. “We’re working hard to improve processing times,” an airport spokesman tells Travelskills. “SFO has already introduced Automated Passport Control kiosks, the Mobile Passport Control app, and reconfigured both signage and queuing to increase efficiency. We’re also working with Customs and Border Protection to ensure they do their part, by increasing their staffing levels to meet these additional traffic demands.”
Have you noticed longer lines at customs? Thoughts on Global Entry? Please leave your comments below.
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Boy you right wingers never cease to amaze me with your temper tantrums and blame games…(g)
The Elites he is talking about haven’t been arrested several times? 😉
Back in 2011 we went to Europe and on the return flight form Frankfurt to Houston, took about more than 2 hours to pass customs.
Yuck! Thanks for sharing. For this reason, I spend the $100 every five years to maintain DHS Global Entry. Do you have this? If not, it’s money well spent.
You do understand that the flow recently has been OUT of the US, right? And why is illegal immigration caused by your unfavorite politician? Take a look at the numbers to compare immigration (legal and illegal) under both democratic and republican administrations over the last five decades and you will see that this issue is an issue for the country not just for one party.
Why is it “elitist” to pre-screen frequent travelers and thus save the government money while saving the traveler time? Why is it “elitist” if it is available to anyone who is qualified?
Last month I did U.S. immigration & customs pre-screening at Dublin airport, before a DUB-SFO flight home. It was a joy to land at SFO, grab my bag off the carousel and walk out!
As this survey notes, the waits for customs at SFO can be ridiculously long.
GE is elitist and should not be allowed. Better staffing would help all with no “hotshot look at me” elitist BS.
Oakland is a mess too, with no lines for US citizens? What’s that all about? Thanks for the welcome home jerkoffs.
This is nonsense – SFO is one of the best – I pass through here frequently and rarely see lines. And IAD is always horrible. Of course, I have GE so I never actually have to wait in lines…
The issue I had was not so much with the number flights arriving at the same time but that there were simply inadequate staffing over for the US citizens who declared items. The wait time was unacceptable. I’ve flown into O’hare from Europe and even during midday with so many flights coming in, it was that bad because there was adequate staffing. The situation at SFO was absolutely absurd.
The worst at SFO is arriving from Europe right after an Asian arrival. Asian widebodies typically have more seats – 500 in some case. An hour wait is not unusual for US citizens. I can only assume longer waits for non-US citizens.
My experience at SFO more often than not has been horrible. My last international flight into SFO on a Monday evening from HK last Fall was disastrous at best, nearly one hour wait and thankfully I was towards the front of the line. And THANKFULLY our flight came in earlier than a Lufthansa flight. If you are honest and declared items, you were sent to the right side where it was only staffed by 2 persons (yes 2 persons!). The middle section was for travelers without anything declared and the line moved much faster. The left section was for visiting travelers. It wasn’t until ALL the travelers in the middle sections were checked out did the staff start assisting us who were in the right section. People in back of us were so upset and started to create a ruckus and who could blame them as wait time for them easily was at least 2 hours. The CBP staff were not sympathetic and didn’t care. Truly incompetent.
I travel International through SFO often and find it a hit or miss. If the airlines would not schedule arrivals times at the same time, maybe that will help. I understand they want to connect to domestic flights but spreading the UA flights out by 30-45 minutes in the morning would go a long way.