TRAVELLERS through the nation's two international airports will soon be able to spend less time when leaving the country.

Security Minister Peter Bunting announced yesterday that a re-engineering of the outgoing immigration Advance Passenger Information System (APIS) would make the experience of travel to and from Jamaica more enjoyable.

At present, all persons who travel out of the island have to spend a considerable amount of time at immigration counters. But at a press conference at the ministry's office on Oxford Road in Kingston yesterday, Bunting said that will soon be a thing of the past.

"At the end of December, we started a very important pilot for the tourism industry and the competitiveness of our airport. What this has facilitated is a number of airlines, their passengers can bypass the immigration booths that are set up in outgoing immigration," he said.

However, he said that the move was not a threat to airport security.

"The store owners are happy as the visitors spend the waiting time in the area where the stores and restaurants are," he said.

Bunting said the system would move from the pilot stage to full implementation in about two months and that 96 per cent of all airlines which fly to Jamaica have come on board.