Fastest landside to airside? [Internationally in Oz]

[Colster]

departed SYD yesterday with my new shiny ABTC and (had stopwatch running) was airside 1 minute and 54 seconds after I entered the immigration section. Was as 8am on a Sunday morning as well.
Is this a record? Love the ABTC.

Fastest the other way was six minutes gate to taxi (AKL -SYD flight at 20:30)

 

[Daver6]

What privileges at SYD does the ABTC get you?

 

[harvyk]

Never really thought to time it. I've certainly had trips through which took no more than a few minutes. I guess it's one advantage to always having to connect to an international port, it puts me there at times which are typically not peak.

Personally I haven't really noticed much difference between smiling for an officer vs looking blankly ahead for a machine since for me it's always been security which has been the bottleneck.

 

[dajop]

What privileges at SYD does the ABTC get you?

Good question. At MEL outbound through immigration, ABTC gets no privileges at all. Everyone must use the machines. Never taken me more than a minute or two. At MEL, in my experience, as per harvyk's observation, it's security that has been the bottleneck.

 

[Colster]

What privileges at SYD does the ABTC get you?

Immigration at the far right hand side for Aircrew and ABTC only. No queue at all yesterday. Dedicated security lane as well.

 

[Daver6]

Good question. At MEL outbound through immigration, ABTC gets no privileges at all. Everyone must use the machines. Never taken me more than a minute or two. At MEL, in my experience, as per harvyk's observation, it's security that has been the bottleneck.

Worse at T3 (Qantas inbound), there are no machine readers or APEC queue

 

[juddles]

I think the thing here is the exact methodology. What is "entering immigration" and "being airside"? It appears to me to be timing just the security. But in any case the OP was obviously fast

My favorite airport for departures is Santiago, Chile. There is a true separate "fastgate" equivalent - a totally separate area for immigration. I suspect my average time between "entering emigration" and 'being airside" is similar to the Op's experience - really there is no way to make that less. I often stay in the Holiday Inn there - it is a hotel adjacent to the terminal. I know now I can checkout from the hotel only half an hour before actual flight departure - 15 minutes tops to do checkout / go through immigration / be at the gate. With the other 15 minutes a margin to allow a 10 minute taste or three of the excellent wines in the LATAM flounge before boarding at the end and avoiding the queues. Even safer when I have checked a bag in and know they will wait for me :O

 

[dk4]

For me the metric that matters is - time from the kerb to inside the lounge. (Or even more precisely: from seat to seat... i.e. uber seat to lounge seat, as this takes into account all the airport obstacles on my path, including the length of the path itself.)

 

[Colster]

I think the thing here is the exact methodology. What is "entering immigration" and "being airside"? It appears to me to be timing just the security. But in any case the OP was obviously fast

My definition was post check in (entering the immigration zone through to the other side of security)

 

[Strategic Aviation]

Here's a previous thread - Quickest Time from International Gate to Taxi Departure?

 

[jb747]

I wish they’d put in more of the passport readers, and spread them around near the gates. Get rid of that blockage just prior to duty free (in Melbourne). If I get a good run at the machines, it takes no more than a couple of minutes over the time it takes to walk the distance. I never have checked luggage, which helps a lot.

 

[Hvr]

I wish they’d put in more of the passport readers, and spread them around near the gates.

I've heard that there are plans to bring in a one stop machine so that you line up, answer the questions and then frown at the camera.

I've always believed that the ticket collection and subsequent deposit in a different machine was an otiose step and its elimination can only speed up the process.

 

[Forg]

Had a pretty quick exit from SYD late this morning.
The flight crew let J off the ‘plane first, so we’d have had maybe 15 people get off before us. Then the better-half was just about sprinting (she never walks so quickly!) towards the e-passport machines, neither of us had to wait to use one, no queue to get through the photo-gate, then about a 60s wait before the luggage started coming out at the carousel next to the Express Path exit ... my bag was 2nd on the carousel, hers was 3rd, and only one person in front of us at the Express Path exit. The hire-dar driver was a bit surprised at how quickly we’d gotten out (limo - because cheaper than taxi).
I’d say about 5-7 minutes or so, about 2min waiting time & the rest walking.

 

[dajop]

I wish they’d put in more of the passport readers, and spread them around near the gates. Get rid of that blockage just prior to duty free (in Melbourne).

Happy for the blockage just prior to duty free, I never stop at these machines. I use the ones after duty free, never had to wait for these.

 

[harvyk]

I've heard that there are plans to bring in a one stop machine so that you line up, answer the questions and then frown at the camera.

I've always believed that the ticket collection and subsequent deposit in a different machine was an otiose step and its elimination can only speed up the process.

My understanding is that they are eventually wanting to use data matching technology which effectively makes it like arriving at dom.

I believe it's something along the lines of you walk down a corridor without needing to stop, and cameras will match up against passport details flagging those who need to discuss things with immigration or customs.

At one stage Canberra was meant to be used as an trial airport for this tech. Don't know what happened (despite being CBR based, I never fly out of CBR internationally)

 

[Strategic Aviation]

At one stage Canberra was meant to be used as an trial airport for this tech. Don't know what happened (despite being CBR based, I never fly out of CBR internationally)

Dutton claimed a 90% success rate in CBR - Australian airports testing facial recognition technology to replace physical passport checks - The Daily Telegraph.

SYD trial to commence in mid to late 2018 in partnership with Qantas. The trial is expected to initially cover three off-peak flights a day, and the contactless features will be rolled out incrementally. Gate 25 will be the contactless self-boarding gate and registered participants should be able to use the contactless technology on return to Australia. There will also be some level of integration with Qantas lounge facilities to "personalise" the offering (and perhaps track who is in the lounge?).

Sydney Airport to pilot app-based enrolment for facial recognition system - Computerworld
Sydney Airport to run face recognition throughout terminals - iTnews

 

[JohnK]

I vaguely recall entering the SYD F lounge ~10 minutes after check-in.

There are days when even Express pass security can be 8-10 deep or more and slow.

 

[opusman]

I've always believed that the ticket collection and subsequent deposit in a different machine was an otiose step and its elimination can only speed up the process.

Hmmm, not sure about that. Splitting the passport scanning step from the face matching step means you can process twice as many pax at the same time, surely?

 

[russ]

I vaguely recall entering the SYD F lounge ~10 minutes after check-in.

I just did less than five mins. No queue anywhere!

 

[Franky]

I've heard that there are plans to bring in a one stop machine so that you line up, answer the questions and then frown at the camera.

I've always believed that the ticket collection and subsequent deposit in a different machine was an otiose step and its elimination can only speed up the process.

And was probably nugatory as well!