Congratulations are due to Gardermoen, Oslo’s Airport. It finally managed to do what so many airports haven’t. It allows international passengers to connect to domestic flights without making them pick up checked baggage or go through security.
NB: This is a guest analysis by Doug Lansky, travel writer, author, and speaker.
About a month ago, at the Illinois Tourism Conference, I asked Roger Dow, head of the US Travel Association, why we do this seemingly ridiculous thing.
We force both foreign visitors and US citizens who have just arrived on long international flights to leave the secure area of the airport simply to move their checked luggage from one carousel to another, then spend their first hour in America waiting in a TSA line to get back into the secure area.
And passengers have to do this even if they don’t have any carry-on luggage.
It’s not just the US who does this to international passengers making connecting flights. It’s basically every country. You go through customs and BAM! – you’re spit out into an unsecure area.
Roger commented that he agreed it was a pointless exercise that unnecessarily contributed to the TSA's load. But there isn't a current plan underway in the US to fix it.
Oslo has a head start. Begun last September, Gardermoen Airport’s program is called “Connecting Norway.” It is using technology to make a loophole big enough for passengers to pass through.
It works like this. After you arrive on an international flight with a through ticket — you start walking toward your connecting gate.
You’ll eventually arrive at an automatic barcode entry point (see image, below) that serves as both customs and a virtual baggage carousel.
Before you are allowed to pass through, you have to wait until your flight appears on a screen nearby, signifying that your luggage from your flight has arrived inside the airport.
Once you see your flight appear on the screen, you may use your barcoded ticket to enter. (See image, below.)
And by scanning your ticket – brace for the loophole – you are virtually transferring your luggage.
Then you walk by customs officers on the other side of this automated gate, and on toward your next flight, never leaving the secure part of the airport.
Perhaps Oslo can offer everyone a way forward.
Some caveats: The test pilot only covers if you arrive on SAS, Norwegian, or Wideroe on selected routes. It started for passengers who only have hand luggage. If you haven't checked any luggage, your ticket let's you through the automated entry immediately. The project has gradually been expanding to cover checked luggage, too, airline-by-airline, route-by-route, as processes are put into place.
The airport explains the loophole this way:
"When the passengers scan their arrival documentation at the entrance to the new Customs area, they will get images of their baggage so they can identify it.... The baggage is thus linked to the passenger digitally before they go through customs."
NB: This is a guest analysis by Doug Lansky, travel writer, author, and speaker. Images courtesy of Lansky.