Skip to main content

Advertisement

Advertisement

Easier time for Singaporeans at major Australia airports

SINGAPORE — Those travelling to Australia will now have an easier time of it at the airport — Singaporeans can now skip the lines for passport clearance by customs officers and head to the SmartGates to self-process their passports at Australia’s eight major airports.

SmartGate operates on facial-recognition technology that matches the image taken of travellers at a kiosk screen with the digital facial image stored in the electronic chip in their biometric passport.  Photo: Australian Customs and Border  Protection Service

SmartGate operates on facial-recognition technology that matches the image taken of travellers at a kiosk screen with the digital facial image stored in the electronic chip in their biometric passport. Photo: Australian Customs and Border Protection Service

Follow TODAY on WhatsApp

SINGAPORE — Those travelling to Australia will now have an easier time of it at the airport — Singaporeans can now skip the lines for passport clearance by customs officers and head to the SmartGates to self-process their passports at Australia’s eight major airports.

These are the international airports at Sydney, Adelaide, Brisbane, Cairns, Melbourne, Perth, Gold Coast and Darwin. The move follows a successful trial launched in February, and other countries for which SmartGate is available on a permanent basis are New Zealand, the United States and the United Kingdom.

SmartGate consists of two steps involving a kiosk and a gate. The kiosk scans a traveller’s passport and the traveller makes standard declarations, before being issued a SmartGate ticket. At the gate, the ticket is inserted and a camera scans the traveller’s face and compares it to the photo in the passport.

Commenting on the move, a Singapore Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesperson said in a statement: “Singapore welcomes the Australian Government’s announcement today that SmartGate has been permanently extended to eligible Singapore passport holders...This move reflects the close bilateral ties shared by Singapore and Australia and will further enhance the already-close people-to-people links between the two countries.”

Australia’s Assistant Minister for Immigration and Border Protection Michaelia Cash said in a statement on her website that the permanent extension highlights the “strong trusted partnership between Australia and Singapore and the benefits of close collaboration”.

Read more of the latest in

Advertisement

Advertisement

Stay in the know. Anytime. Anywhere.

Subscribe to get daily news updates, insights and must reads delivered straight to your inbox.

By clicking subscribe, I agree for my personal data to be used to send me TODAY newsletters, promotional offers and for research and analysis.