Improve arrival process

July 24, 2007

Dear Sir,

After many years of vacation travel to Bermuda, we were dismayed by the arrival process on our most recent flight from Washington DC on July 21. We spent approximately 90 minutes the first check point line. The line appeared to be made up of one flight ahead of our half empty flight.

The arrival hall queue lane markings were only half full. There were four agents processing non-Bermudian passengers and twp agents dedicated for the far fewer Bermudian residents.

After successfully leaving this checkpoint we proceeded to claim our luggage only to find a single file line snaking all over the baggage area waiting once again to navigate customs. There was a single customs agent dealing with this situation. This added approximately 30 to 40 additional minutes to our airport captivity.

Initially it was unclear as to the purpose of this second line. The information booth official said it was for customs and it was always this long. We cannot understand the Bermudian Government allowing such a poorly administered and executed process for expediting the single largest economic force that Bermuda has, namely tourists and tourist dollars.

There are numerous beautiful beach destinations readily accessible to the US tourist, for example, the Mayan Riviera Coast of Mexico is about 45 minutes longer in flight time and offers numerous excellent all inclusive affordable vacations.

I say all this because we have always loved Bermuda, but are now rethinking whether we want to come back and go through this airport experience again. Streamlining the arrival process for foreign tourists can only be in Bermuda's best interest. This sentiment was shared by all the passengers in line who felt that the flight time was about the same as the wait time in the airport prior to exiting by taxi. What should be a simple seamless process has only gotten worse over the years.

ADRIAN

Wshington D.C.