An American traveler flies from London to Helsinki, Finland, via a connecting flight in Stockholm or Copenhagen.
Would the traveler go through customs at either connecting airport, and receive a customs stamp on his passport?
General no. As long as you don’t need to change terminals you don’t have to go through customs. You get off one plan and get on to the other.
If you want to leave the terminal you flew into for any reason you need to go through customs.
Aren’t Finland, Sweden and Denmark all in the Schengen zone? There should be no immigration checkpoints between them. Our traveller in this case will probably be required to go through immigration in either Stockholm or Copenhagen, but will be done with it afterward.
Not immigration. I’m asking about customs.
Since you mentioned stamp in the passport, I assume you meant border control in general. The passport is normally stamped by an immigration officer at the border who determines whether you are allowed to enter the country. The custom officer determines whether you owe any duties and whether you are trying to import any contrabands, but don’t normally stamp the passport.
Departing from the UK, which is a EU member state, but not part of the Schengen zone, I think the traveller is not subject to any custom control at either the connecting airport or the final destination. He or she does, however, need to pass through immigration control at the first port of entry into the Schengen zone.
The US is one of very, very few countries where you go through customs or immigration on connecting flights. On arriving in Finland from the UK, a US citizen will need to go through immigration, but can pass through the Blue Channel when going through customs.
Thanks all, for your answers.