Last week I was traveling in Africa, in Cameroon to be precise. I flew around Cameroon, marveling at the splendor of the Congo rain forest, which you can see on this month’s “Quest” (hey, it’s my blog…I can promote my show if I want to).

Anyway, I was reminded that we are indeed very lucky in the standard of airports and service we enjoy in the West. Douala Airport is a pretty grim place to be stranded for any length of time. Whether it’s the overcrowded check-in, the lack of any decent toilet facilities or the overzealous souvenir salesmen that turn the departure lounge into a virtual bazaar, the place is only just about functioning as an airport. With one exception. Porters.

Uniformed, fast, friendly and remarkably efficient at getting me through checking and customs. And all for a fixed price… yup, we might be able to tell Douala how to run an airport, but they can also teach us a thing or two.

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I also promised to keep you informed with the success of the Iris scan at Heathrow Airport for which I have registered. Many of you think these biometric readers rarely work. Coming in from Africa, (via Zurich) I found the machine rejected me several times until a fellow iris user told me to enter the booth keeping your hand baggage behind you. Got that? Behind you! Bingo! It worked a treat. So, Heathrow, you are four for four.

Now we just have to get countries to all use the same biometric parameters (iris, fingerprints, face recognition – I don’t care which), so that the true benefits of this can be realized by the traveling public as much as the security it offers. I will keep you informed.

Posted by Richard Quest: 2:56 PM

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