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With little prospect of supersonic air travel making a comeback any time soon, flying between the Gulf and the USA is likely to remain a testing experience for most passengers. Direct flights from the UAE to America’s East Coast take about 15 hours, and are typically followed by lengthy queues at US Customs and Border Protection (CBP).
Efforts to develop a successor to Concorde – the supersonic jet that halved transatlantic journey times until its retirement in 2003 – have to date been confounded by a mixture of economic, environmental and technological challenges. Mindful of this, Etihad Airways, Abu Dhabi's flag carrier, is instead tackling the secondary issue of customs delays on the ground. On 24 January, Abu Dhabi became the 16th location in the world to offer pre-clearance of US customs on foreign soil...
