According to ShareAmerica, 300,000 passengers and crew members arrive in the United States on international flights daily. These numbers have prompted U.S. federal agencies, as well as local independent airport authorities, to collaborate on creating a new system to help visitors get through customs more quickly.
Currently, more than 40 percent of people arriving on international flights head straight to the blue Automated Passport Control kiosks to scan their passports and answer standard customs declaration questions. The device takes their photo and prints an image along with the necessary information on a receipt, which the traveler hands directly to a customs officer.
The kiosks can be used by citizens and lawful permanent residents of the United States and Canada, as well as visitors from 38 countries with visa waiver agreements with the United States, including European countries, Australia, New Zealand, Chile, Brunei, and South Korea. For visitors from these countries, the kiosks electronically capture their fingerprints.
Currently, there are more than 1,300 kiosks in 34 U.S. airports and eight other countries where passengers can clear U.S. customs before boarding their flight. It is fast and free, unlike the Global Entry program, for which travelers must preregister and pay $100.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection spokesperson Jennifer Evanicky said that the kiosks have been used more than 95 million times since the program began in 2013, and wait times have been reduced by as much as 27 percent at some airports.
The kiosks, each costing between $35,000 and $50,000, are purchased and maintained not by the government but by airports as a customer service. Chicago's O'Hare International Airport, the first U.S. airport to start using kiosks, spent several million dollars to acquire them. The kiosks have helped reduce missed connections, which can cause travelers to lose a precious vacation day or miss an important meeting.
Dan Agostino, assistant director of aviation operations at Miami International Airport, where wait times have dropped despite a sharp increase in international arrivals, says: "Helping passengers get through customs is very important for our airport. If a person has to stand in line for two hours, they are unlikely to make their flight."