After going in and out of Bangkok, Singapore and Kuala Lumpur airports in recent weeks, nothing could have prepared me for the chaos that was arrival at Perth airport in Australia.
As one guy said to me, "this is the worst airport in the world".
And so it was. A 50 minute queue for a passport stamp. 20 minutes waiting for luggage to arrive. 2 hours to clear customs. Long queues, rude staff, inefficiency and a total inability to handle incoming passengers.
A customs officer standing around doing nothing said to me when I questioned the long queue "We can't cope when 3 planes come in at once". Maybe if he and his colleaugues who were standing about doing nothing helped out, things would go just a little faster.
Part of the problem is that Australia's customs rules are so hideously complicated that virtually everyone has something to declare. And customs staff are so hideously suspicious that if you don't declare anything you are almost certain to be inspected anyway.
But Perth Airport has become a joke. When it takes longer to clear customs than in major airports you know something is wrong. It's OK to have strict customs laws but there is no excuse for understaffing on such a huge scale.
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