Immigration Autogates

It was quite rare to see a full Royal Brunei Airlines flight, but that was what I witnessed on my return journey home two evenings ago. It was the last flight from Singapore to Brunei before the school year started and the plane was full of holidaymakers making their way home. If only more RBA flights were like this, it would be a great news to RBA and the local tourism industry.

It was also welcoming to know that there are now immigration autogates at the Arrival Hall of the Brunei International Airport. The autogates were made possible with the introduction of biometric passports in Brunei last year. I had my machine-readable passport (MRP) changed to the biometric one and I took the opportunity to try out the gate. My verdict? It was excellent. It took less than 20 seconds to get cleared by the autogate. The bulk of the time was taken as the machine read the passport, but when it was done, fingerprint scanning would take place almost instantaneously and after that you were through. I was really impressed with the autogate. 

So if you haven't got your biometric passport yet, what are you waiting for?