Lindbergh’s 1st Working Customs Facility in 8 Years to Open Next Week

For the first time in eight years, Lindbergh Field will have a working customs facility, enabling passengers on San Diego-bound British Airways flights from London to avoid the hassle of clearing customs at hectic and congested Los Angeles International Airport.

Although the new, upgraded facility will at first be used only by British Airways passengers, a U. S. Customs Service official said that there will be enough capacity for multiple international flights, and that one airline, operated by Resorts International, is apparently close to introducing five-day-a-week service from Mexico.

The remodeling and upgrading was paid for by the San Diego Unified Port District, which has spent $295,000 on the facility, spokesman Dan Wilkens said. It will be officially unveiled Tuesday and will handle its first passengers the next afternoon, he said. The Port District operates the airport.

When British Airways introduced service to San Diego from London’s Gatwick airport in June, it was expected that its passengers would be able to use the old customs inspection area, which had gone unused since Western Airlines stopped its service from Mexico City in 1981.

Customs Says Facility Outdated

But, to the surprise of the airline and Port District officials, the Customs Service said the facility was outdated and didn’t meet new standards for baggage inspections and searches for drugs and other contraband.

While planners scrambled to draft new plans to remodel the facility--in the East Terminal, just past and to the left of the Continental Airlines ticket counter--San Diego passengers on British Airways’ DC-10s were forced to get off in Los Angeles and clear customs there, a process that sometimes took hours and led to complaints.

“It was affecting us negatively,” said Vangie Sorensen, the Los Angeles-based spokeswoman for British Airways Western USA. “Sometimes we had delayed flights coming into Los Angeles” that, in turn, sometimes prevented passengers from continuing on to San Diego because the night landing curfew was in effect by the time they cleared customs.

“Stopping in L.A. made people unhappy . . . (because) going through L.A. customs is not a slice of heaven,” she said.

1 Flight a Day Into Lindbergh

British Airways now has one flight a day into Lindbergh from Wednesday through Sunday, a schedule that will expand to daily flights in the summer. Twenty-five to 50 San Diego-bound passengers are usually on the flights during the fall and winter.

But Don Tag, Pacific regional director of inspection and control for the Customs Service, said he expects Orange County residents on the British Airways flights to also bypass LAX and instead decide to clear customs at Lindbergh.

Not only will the wait be much less at Lindbergh, but traveling time from San Diego to many Orange County communities is also shorter than from LAX, Tag said.

“I don’t think it will take very long for the word to get out,” he added.

Interim Inspection Area

The new Lindbergh facility will be capable of handling 200 to 240 passengers an hour, according to Tag, who said the new complex is actually an interim inspection area that probably will be moved in about five years.

Tag said officials from the Customs Service inspected the new facility last week and it was approved for use. “We had a walk-through, and it was all satisfactory and there were no significant problems,” he said.

Among the new features are a variable-speed luggage conveyor belt that will allow dogs to sniff for drugs while out of view of passengers; new inspection stations and, eventually, a new computer system that will allow inspectors to more quickly check the passports of passengers. All costs except the computer system are being paid for by the Port District.