Australian airports would start fast track customs and immigration processing for foreign travelers by taking a fee.
This service of premium border security is targeted at business tourist, wealthy passengers and for those people who could afford a fee for fast clearance of immigration.
According to the Australian Immigration Department, it would also assist in luring more individuals to Australia. The plan was made in previous week’s federal budget and would initially be available at the Australian airports in Sydney, Perth and Melbourne.
Under this proposal, airports would pay government fee to provide the premium service that would then be passed to airlines and to passengers who are looking for quick option.
The Australian government has not discloses how much it is expecting to increase through this premium service because of commercial confidentiality.
This decision has been welcomed by all the airports and also by the Australian Tourism Industry. And according to the Immigration Minister, Peter Dutton, passengers will still go through immigration, standard customs and security screenings.
The ministry has also informed that there will be no affect on waiting times for the passengers utilizing the standard lines.
According to the Head of Transport and Tourism Forum, Margy Osmond, Australia has to look around its competitors in the region and should understand that few of our key development markets, there is a part that will like to access this premium processing. She also told that it is no dissimilar to an airplane having first, business and economy class. For increasing number of Asian tourists, which is an important development market for Australia, this facilitation is an integral component of travel experience. Tourism in the country is generating $47.5 billion or 3% of country’s GDP and at 5.3% it is rising three times quicker than the entire economy of Australia.
Airports in Australia has implemented or planned many steps to splashdown on processing of border control like automated passport control and self service check in.
