You land at an airport and you want to get where you’re going in the fastest time possible. The flight is over and all you want to do is start your holiday, get on with the business trip or head on home. Airports around the world try to make this experience painless and when flying domestically, it usually is. Arriving as an international passenger is another story.
Disgusting Delays
The first time I arrived in Europe was on Qantas into London Heathrow Terminal 4. After a 12 hour flight from Hong Kong, all I wanted to do was change terminals and get on my next flight to Iceland. Immigration had another plan for me which entailed an enormous queue and a wait of over 2 hours to be seen. Horrible!
Baggage claim can also be a hold up as well. I once landed in Miami on American Airlines and headed on down to wait for my bag. Wait I did – it turns out I was in for a wait of well over an hour before baggage finally started appearing on the belt. You could feel the frustration in the air while we all stood around cooling our heels and it wasn’t pretty!
Fastest Times
There is a place where I regularly set a new record when I arrive as an international passenger. Sydney, Australia! My parents live around 10 minutes drive from the airport which makes that portion of the journey short. However, the airport also seems to do everything right to get me out of there fast.
My last trip set the new record. My Cathay Pacific flight from Hong Kong was on the gate at 6:10am and I was in the door at home at 6:47am! That is 37 minutes including the taxi ride home. I couldn’t believe it!
Immigration features automatic Passport machines and baggage comes out fast. After this, you pass through Quarantine and if you’re not stopped it’s then a short walk to the taxi rank and off you go. This is the second or third time in a row that it has been well under an hour to go through the whole process. Amazing!
Overall Thoughts
Nothing is more exciting than setting a new record for the fastest time through an airport on an international arrival. You always expect it to be hell in a hand basket and it makes your day when it’s smooth and painless.
What are your good and bad experiences arriving into airports internationally? I’d love to hear them in the comments below. Thank you for reading!
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Featured image by Simon Sees via Wikimedia Commons.
There have been times where I’m off the plane and out of the airport in 10-20 mins…off the top of my head in the UK, this has happened in Leeds-Bradford, Heathrow, and London Luton (luckily my bag was right there on the carousel!) In Taiwan, Taoyuan Airport (TPE which serves Taipei) is another that is super efficient, ditto Amsterdam. Worst was Philadelphia. Forty minutes to wait in line for machines that couldn’t read people’s fingerprints the first time because it was summer, sweaty, and the AC was pathetic, and then once you’d passed that, another forty to wait for a… Read more »
It’s the best when you arrive and your bag is right there waiting. That saves a colossal amount of time. I get lucky in Sydney all the time, so long may it continue. I also get baggage and out of Dublin very quickly all the time. I guess it’s down to handlers who understand that people want to get home. I’ve not been through Philadelphia airport, though I have been to the city. That experience sounds pretty awful. Agree with you on the international vs domestic terminals at some US cities too!
Tampa airport – off an international flight, through immigration, collect bags and out of customs in about 35 minutes. Orlando and Miami usually take 60 – 90 minutes.
That’s pretty decent when you have bags and through immigration! That’s similar to my Sydney experiences. Looks like I might have to try to fly into Tampa at some point! Thanks for the comment!
10 minutes usually in Puerto Plata coming off AA flight from MIA. I have a place 15 mins from there and can clear customs and immigration in around 10 mins max after hitting the gate. Sometimes less. And yes SIN is fast as well.
That’s brilliant – I love hearing of quick arrivals, it’s very good indeed. Thanks for the comment!
My record was at Phuket airport. I arrived on a delayed Silk Air flight from Singapore on ticket 1. I would depart on tikcet 2 with Etihad. So, i had to go through immigration get stamped, get my Luggage, check my Luggage, go through immigration get stamped again, go to the lounge to have champage, skip the ecnomy line and be on board etihad to have champagne again. 35 minutes!!! Ok; it was with the help of both Etihad and SilkAir twitter teams and Phuket airport staff to make this happen! I really think airport should have immigration AFTER collecting… Read more »
BTW: I actually went THROUGH the line boarding etihad when getting of the silk air flight. 😉
Hahahahaha!!
reminds of my Asiana flt 747 landing at Hkt, good time of day to get there ( about 11 am) but a zoo with all the flights landing at the same time. was over an hour from immigration to getting in my sons truck at the curb
Ugh, I hate long delays at immigration when you’ve just come off a long flight. It’s so tiring! Worse in places like Thailand where it’s hot and humid, it makes it much harder!
not too hot in the airport, but the pushy tourists on the low cost tours are another matter. ( I won’t mention what country they come from)
Ahh, I understand 🙂
Hahaha – I love the fact you still managed to swing by the lounge to have a Champagne! That’s definitely the way to do things! It’s great you had such good help though, it certainly smooths things over. I guess immigration is before all the rest as having baggage with you at the immigration queue would make that a whole lot more painful and the queues would be longer as people would need to leave the room for the luggage. That’s what I think anyway! Thanks for the comment!
Yeah but should be SOME solution to make it more smooth for those who need to re-check Luggage.
I agree with you on that – since oneworld stopped through check unless you are on a single ticket, collecting the bag at each place where a new ticket occurs gets old fast!
bkk ( old dm airport) 15 minutes ( from immigration to street, not counting the walk form the arrival gate) late at night, just carry on bag.
That’s pretty decent – I never managed to visit the old Bangkok airport. Without a checked bag it is usually much faster. I wonder what your record is with baggage though. Mine was having to wait for baggage as well, I think I just got lucky! Thanks for the comment.
last time at bkk (12 July, 2016) was about 55 minutes from immigration to getting in car.
main delays were meeting my family ( still not organized meeting points by which exit point we use) and bookimg a van to our condo.
from immigration to exit about 20 minutes
Jal flt 707 lands at 11 pm, so not too crowded
still a long walk from the gate to the immigration area.
Yeah the new BKK has a long walk to almost everywhere. I’ve transferred flights there and remember walking for ages to get to and from where I was going.
That’s a pretty good time, 20 minutes!! I haven’t flown JAL, it’s something I really need to do sometime! I hear they’re pretty good.
My only gripe with Jal is the bad business class seats on jl, 65,. 707. 708,66
they need to get with it like Cathay, or even delta on the same routes
Still, it is Business Class! I will have to be careful when I do fly them to make sure I get a good cabin!
so far the san/bkk route on jal is the almost reclining business class sets ( where gravity eventually gets you)
Ahh I understand 🙂
I figured they had an overstock of these crappy seats in their inventory to use up. sad to fill a late model aircraft with outdated seats.
I guess it was just a clash of dates. Seats and cabin fittings have a long lead time, so they were probably already paid for when they made the change.
could be, but other routes with older aircraft have the good seats
Interesting!
OK. Changi is always a breeze. Usually at our hotel in Marina Bay in 45 minutes. Last time in JFK despite the fact that our fingerprints have not worked with Global Entry, we were out in 20 minutes and had to wait for our car service since we had landed early.
That’s awesome! Changi is a very well organised airport, so it makes flying through Singapore a breeze. That’s pretty amazing for JFK – you’d expect it to take longer. It’s brilliant when everything comes together, isn’t it? Thanks for the comment!