Passengers traveling on United Airlines flights from Sydney Airport (SYD) to San Francisco International Airport (SFO) are being allowed to bypass re-checking baggage before connecting to another flight, part of broader efforts by U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) and the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) to enable passengers to move faster through airports.
Typically, passengers arriving in the U.S. aboard an international flight need to collect checked baggage and then check the baggage again for screening before boarding a connecting flight. Under CBP’s International Remote Baggage Screening (IRBS) pilot program, passengers flying the United SYD-SFO route and on select American Airlines flights are instead able to check bags for screening just once at their origin airport.
CBP earlier this year started trialing the IRBS program on American Airlines flights from SYD to Los Angeles International Airport (LAX).
CBP personnel “view the same checked baggage x-ray images captured at the foreign international airport and review them remotely before the aircraft lands,” the agency explained. “This proactive approach enables CBP to assess potential security risks more effectively and expedites the processing of arriving flights.”
United said more than 160 passengers per flight have participated on SYD-SFO flights that have initially been part of the program. The passengers have “saved up to 45 minutes in their connection journey,” according to the airline.
United said bags being checked are dropped off at the check-in counter at SYD. “Passengers connecting on a flight to another destination go to CBP for customs, immigration and agriculture inspections and then head directly to the [TSA checkpoint] for security screening, removing the step for these travelers to pick-up checked bags at baggage claim and re-check them to their final destinations, unless specifically referred by CBP for further inspection,” United noted. “As the flight is heading to the U.S. from Sydney, United, CBP and TSA work together to screen checked bags and, once the flight arrives, the bags are loaded onto connecting flights.”
Jennifer Schwierzke, United’s vice president of customer operations strategy and execution, said the airline and CBP are “testing this new process” on the SYD-SFO route “and plan to expand to additional international routes in the months ahead.”
TSA recently went one step further by implementing a One-Stop Security (OSS) pilot program allowing passengers traveling from London Heathrow Airport (LHR) on select flights to two U.S. airports to bypass re-screening at security checkpoints before connecting to another flight. Passengers flying on American service between LHR and Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport and on Delta Air Lines flights between LHR and Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport are eligible. According to the agency, passengers “proceed directly to the terminal’s sterile area for connecting flights after clearing CBP federal inspection.”
As with American SYD-LAX and United SYD-SFO flights in the IRBS program, passengers participating in the OSS trial have their checked baggage transferred to connecting flights without the bags being re-screened.
TSA has been implementing changes to airport security in recent months, including lifting the requirement that passengers remove shoes at checkpoints and considering changes to its liquids and electronics rules. TSA has also started a pilot program allowing eligible passengers at select checkpoints at 14 U.S. airports to move through checkpoints using biometric facial recognition as their sole form of identification.
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