If you’re traveling internationally from the Edmonton International Airport this holiday season, you’ll be getting the gift of extra time.

Lineups a little shorter, thanks to some new automated passport machines set up at customs. The machinery was unveiled Friday for the first time.

The new machines eliminate the need for passport related paperwork. Passengers can now enter their information electronically, before scanning their passports.

The new technology cost $800 thousand, but the EIA says it is a worthwhile investment, since travel to the US is up 10 per-cent in the first 10 months of this year.

“We have a need,” says Steve Maybee, EIA’s VP of Operations, “We are adding more flights all the time, so you have to have the technology to get passengers through.”

The EIA is the fourth airport in Canada to offer the technology. The airports in Montreal, Toronto and Vancouver have already introduced similar machines.

 

With files from Laura Tupper