Minneapolis-St. Paul Airport Opens New Customs Area

<FONT SIZE="+3"><B>Minneapolis-St. Paul Airport Opens New Customs Area</B>

By Frank Rosci

Minneapolis-Saint Paul International Airport took a giant leap forward as a growing midwestern gateway with the Nov. 15 opening of a new customs and immigration facility in the main terminal.

In the past, passengers arriving on international flights at the Lindbergh Terminal were required to take a shuttle bus to the Hubert H. Humphrey Charter Terminal to be cleared by customs and immigrations; that terminal now is exclusively used for charter operations.

Arriving passengers on regularly scheduled international flights now clear inspections at the new facility adjacent to the main terminal, according to Pierson M. "Sandy" Grieve, chairman of the Metropolitan Airports Commission.

The new facility also should make it easier for international passengers making domestic connections now that they don't need to shuttle back and forth between the two terminals.

"Our goal is to enable passengers to clear inspection and be on their way to either Minneapolis, their car or a connecting flight within 25 minutes of their arrival," Grieve said. Under the old setup, it took passengers at least an hour, and sometimes as long as an hour and a half, to clear customs.

The clearance procedure is still being fine-tuned, Grieve acknowledged, so the anticipated quick exit time is not yet being achieved on all flights, but it is being met on flights with less than a full load.

The new $30 million facility, located on the Gold Concourse next to the main terminal building, can accommodate 800 passengers an hour-the equivalent of two fully loaded 747 aircraft. Located on the premises are 16 Immigration and Naturalization stations; two large baggage claim carousels are located nearby.

At Northwest, MSP's hub carrier, executives are mindful of the new facility's long-term potential impact on air travel to the Twin Cities. "The new customs facility makes Northwest's Minneapolis hub a top international gateway to the world," said John Dasburg, Northwest's president and CEO.

New signage includes displays in several languages, and the airlines have staffed the area with multilingual employees to assist passengers.

Most of the financing is drawn from the $3 passenger facility charges collected by the airlines from each deplaning passenger, and the balance is paid directly by the carriers. Funding was not collected from the public sector.