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The saying “It is better to travel than to arrive” obviously pre-dates the age of tight security at airports and the resultant queues. Whilst no-one likes waiting in line, how much would you be prepared to pay to jump the immigration queue?

Starting next year, a trial will be carried out at Stansted airport and then at Heathrow Terminal 4, enabling passengers to pay up to £50 to by-pass the immigration queue, which could easily save them 45 minutes.

Those passengers with the new biometric passports will be able to do this free of charge and, for passengers who fly frequently, it may make financial sense to renew their passport early so that they too can avoid having to pay the charge to fast-track immigration.

At the moment, almost 20 million of us have the biometric passports which were introduced in Mar 2006. EU nationals with biometric passports will also be able to use the fast track initiative free of charge.

The technology at the new automated gates will use biometric information (namely, the distance between a person’s eyes, nose, mouth and ears) to decide whether or not a person has the right to enter the UK. Money made from the scheme will be used to pay back the £7 million spent on the new gates.

Currently the only way of jumping the queue is to register free of charge on the IRIS scheme which works using iris recognition.

Whether many travellers will be willing to part with £50 for the privilege of jumping the queue remains to be seen, given that there are so many other hidden costs of flying. This week BA dealt a blow to travellers by introducing a charge for passengers wishing to pre-book their seats.