Last week I flew into Cayman for the first time in 18 months. Impressively efficient through the entry process was, it did take two hours for one flight, as in addition to regular immigration and customs needs, there was covid test checking and entry procedures for us all going into quarantine. Now, on October 14th Cayman will re-open for tourism for persons who have been fully vaccinated. At that point quite quickly things will return to inbound visitors having long waits on arrival for immigration, increased by the need to check their vaccination records.
I have a simple suggestion to shorten those queues instantly. Offer free airport wifi in all areas. Cayman already has it in check-in and departure lounge areas, so simply extend it to immigration and baggage claim areas. Offer people free wifi to check in with friends, family, work after our flights. After clearing emails and messages, we can then move on to social media, news etc. Before we know it, we are at the front of the line. This won’t change the actual time we spend in line, but it will absolutely change our perception of time.
For more on this, Rory Sutherland has story after story similar to this. Read his amazing book “Alchemy: The Surprising Power of Ideas That Don’t Make Sense”. In fact, if you can, listen to it, don’t read it. Hearing Rory narrate it is wonderful on many levels!
Oh, and for many years there have been rigorously enforced signs in the baggage claim areas of the Cayman airport telling us not to use our phones, sometimes enforced with rigour by airport staff. This makes me think of my “six most dangerous words in business”. If you are responsible for this policy in Cayman at the airport, ask yourself if the reason why you enforce this is: “We’ve always done it this way” or if there is a truly reasonable and defensible reason. I doubt there is. Virtually every major airport internationally has worked this one out and offers free wifi while you wait to enter the country. I highlight Canada, who have famously long immigration lines at Toronto and Vancouver airports. Whenever I have arrived there I smile to see the prominent signs encouraging us to login to their free wifi while we wait.