> Did you know that there's a US customs & immigration + TSA counter at Abu Dhabi?! [...] [a]nd the aircraft will fly as a domestic flight into the domestic terminal of your destination in the US.
This is also the case when you fly out of Shannon airport[0]. Incidentally, if you're arriving at LAX, there's another way to "bypass" immigration & customs, but it'll cost you dearly[1].
Also, I think similar strategies have been adopted for verifying the contents of containers (as in, container ships) to ease the traffic at destination ports in the US.
Like, they verify the containers at the source port and lock it (using some kind of high tech mechanism to prevent tampering).
Abu Dhabi — a place with pre-clearance which I've been talking about — is in Asia :)
However, if you intend to travel to Eastern part of Asia (Japan, South Korea, China, Taiwan etc) going via Abu Dhabi is inefficient; from LAX it's 15 hours to AUH, and then 10 hours to NRT. Direct LAX to NRT is just around 12 hours.
This is also the case when you fly out of Shannon airport[0]. Incidentally, if you're arriving at LAX, there's another way to "bypass" immigration & customs, but it'll cost you dearly[1].
[0] https://www.shannonairport.ie/passengers/at-the-airport/flyi...
[1] https://reserveps.com/