The way I look at airports is the same way I look at a bus stop, Just turn up, jump on your flight and go, everything in between with a little preparation doesn’t have to take long, here is my guide on How to speed through airport security faster.

Be Prepared

The first thing you want to do is travel with only hand luggage. Checking in luggage costs, both time and money. Not checking in a bag also is one less thing to worry about. When you check in luggage you have to wait around to give it to the airline and then wait around to collect it. Also, what if it was to get lost? Keep what you need with you and you can breeze through the whole airport process a lot easier.

Liquids and electronics

Make sure you organize your hand luggage so you don’t bump into any problems. Do not pack anything sharp! Leave your Swiss army knife at home, you simply can’t take it. All liquids should be placed in a clear sealed bag and no more than 100ML, easy!

Also try and place electronics in an easy to grab location which also helps to speed up the process, same for liquids as well leave them on the top of your bag.

Bottles of water

chuck bottled water before you board or you will run into a number of problems. Best to bring a pack down bottle such as a platypus water bottle that rolls up and fits in your bag, then you can fill it up once you are through security.

Apps on ready

Best to keep a number of Smart Phone applications at hand on your phone, many airports have free WIFI, use this to your advantage. Applications like flight board allow you to check any airport’s flight board around the world so you can see if your flight time has changed or what gate you need to go. Your airline might have an application you can download so they can keep you up-to-date directly on delays. Qantas airlines for example.

Check in online

If you’re travelling with just hand luggage simply check in online. This means you can whizz straight to the security section without having to go to a check in at the desk, you have no bags to check in so why do you need to go to the check in gate? Just do it all online, print out your tickets and you have saved yourself a lot of time, great!

skip the shops.

When you arrive at an airport its very tempting to do a bit of pre-shopping, eating or head to the toilet. In my experience get past the gate first before you do any of this. If you bump into a large group or get delayed with security you could be screwed if you spend all your time on the other side of the airport. Pass the gates first, find where your flight is departing then you can shop around with the time you have remaining.

Heading to the security gate

First thing is first you will head to security, This part of the airport process is the most time consuming, with a little knowledge you will breeze through like a king of the security line.

Pockets – empty them.

Empty everything you have in your pockets: Mobile Phone, Keys, chewing gum, coins, passport, boarding passes, everything into your coat or jacket pocket right away. Then simply zip up your pockets, take off your bag and then your jacket and place your jacket over your arm.

Then you want to scan your pockets again and make sure you have nothing remaining.

Now is also a good time to take off your glasses, headphones and belt and also place them in a zip pocket on your jacket. Now you are pretty much ready to rock and roll through security.

Remove any hats as well at this point.

Now you look ready people will notice this and see you are prepared, this helps to motivate people around you to also do the same and hurry the line up. Some of the best airports are already telling people to do this at the start of the line.

Anyway, when approaching the security section, maybe you might have a choice in joining the line itself, if you don’t you just have to join the one line and hope everyone notices you are prepared and hurry up.

If you do have a choice look at the line quickly and do an analysis of who is in the line, immediately you want to look for people in suits. Business folks do this shit for a living and they want to get through as quick as possible to, if you see them join them and you can have a little competition with each other who will get through the quickest.

Elderly, families & student groups AVOID they have many problems getting through security as they have lots of stuff that the security have to spend time going through and this can take some time. They will hold you up and they will be most probably checked because they have some liquid in there bag they have forgotten so try and avoid this line.

Also keep an eye out for new lanes opening, this is very common and if security guards see you are ready to go they instantly let you in the other line as you are no bother at all.

Immigration?

At this stage you might have to get your passport checked too, make sure you have your visa information ready if needed and remove any cases you may have around your passport. More and more airports are doing self service immigration where you scan your passport and automatic doors open, if you see this use it and it will be a lot quicker.

For EU Travellers travelling around the EU make sure you join the EU line at passport control and not the Any country line as this normally takes some time to check the Visa or documents for international travellers, for the EU line they are a lot smoother. You can repeat this process on arrival to the destination as well.

If you have an E-Chip passport, see if the airport has an E-chip line, this is always quicker.

Thank you for reading my blog and I hope this information is useful to you and you’re able to breeze through the airport in no time!