While we all love our holidays, one thing that’s often a little troublesome are those nonetheless necessary passport checks. Long queues on aching legs after an exhausting drive to the airport can put a dampener on the holiday spirits from time to time, even though we love where we’re going and can’t wait for that tremendous day of lounging on the beach.
Luckily, that enticing white sand and those soft crashing waves just got a whole lot easier to get to. The UK Border Force has stepped up to reveal its plan to roll out a premium passport checking service in every UK airport. Across the length of our green land, experts are working to make our holidays as hassle free as possible.
Premium passport pleasure
From £4.99 per person, holidaymakers travelling through airport passport control are able to opt for a faster checking service with much lower queue times, under this new incentive. If you’ve ever been to one of the larger theme parks, you’ve probably had the option to pay for either regular tickets or shelling out a little more for a queue-jumping extra boost. The same kind of principle is coming into play here, and it’s already got plenty of tourism experts talking.
The idea of paying a fiver to scoot through your passport checks a little faster isn’t entirely new. In Scotland, the scheme has been pioneered for a fair while now by Edinburgh Airport in its Departures area, where travellers who are in a hurry, or who simply aren’t up for wasting time in a queue, can pay £4.99 for a much faster security checking service.
Hastening your holiday
Gatwick Airport is one of the busiest travel hubs in the world, so the fact that they’re already trialling the scheme, among other incentives like a £12.50 Premium Passport Control Service, which has already been active over the last year or so, speaks volumes to how in demand this kind of convenience is. The £4.99 alternative is now entering the scene at Gatwick today, and is already proving popular, so we can expect it to be continuously rolled out to the rest of the UK’s airports pretty rapidly.
The incentive was put forward by the UK Border Force, which has seemingly recognised how fed up so many of us are with having our holiday excitement cast aside for tedious queuing. While we’ve all got supreme respect for the hard-working ladies and gentlemen who help make our trips happen through keeping us secure and safe, anything that helps us get to that sun, sea, sand and surf faster is always a welcome option.
The UK Border Force has done well in recognising that many of us don’t have time to waste, so the option to pay a small sliver extra for a much improved service is fantastic.
What do you need to know?
The £4.99 speedy passport service is still in its infancy, although it’s definitely considered a bold move to help curb otherwise rampant queues in UK airports on both the Departures and Arrivals sides. Edinburgh and Gatwick airports have already rolled out the scheme, with the intention for its success to be mirrored in airports across the UK.
Understandably, that’s a pretty hefty undertaking, so we would advise that you keep in touch with the airport you plan to fly with to see if they’re going to have the premium service live by the time you travel. You should also bear in mind that different airports might choose to charge different fees for the service, although we would definitely take £5 as the average cost, as it’s a reasonable price to pay for those of us who are eager to get their holidays started.
What’s your view on the new £5 incentive? Tell us how you feel in the comments below or on our Facebook or Twitter!
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