The U.S. Customs and Border Protection facility at Dublin Airport has been cleared for expansion by a national planning board, overruling a planning refusal by a local county council two years ago.
The facility clears passengers headed for the U.S. so they arrive as if they were on a domestic flight with no further border controls. It has helped make Dublin Airport a popular origin or continuation point for flights to the U.S., but has often been overcrowded.
The Fingal County Council, whose territory includes the airport, has often opposed airport proposals, in part because of local unhappiness over airport traffic and noise. It has recently been blocking an airport proposal to make an informal plane-watching site at the edge of the airport into an official site for watchers, with restrooms and other facilities.
