The Immigration Department has been voted winner of the 2019 Skytrax Award for Best Airport Immigration Service.

This is the third time for the department to receive the award following 2015 and 2016, and the presentation ceremony was held on March 27 in London.

The World Passenger Survey was conducted between August 2018 and February 2019, covering more than 550 airports worldwide and the questionnaires were collected from over 13 million air passengers of more than 100 nationalities.

Director of Immigration Tsang Kwok-wai said he was proud the department received the award in light of the keen competition worldwide.

The department, in its endeavour to facilitate visitors at the airport and other passenger control points, launched Smart Departure in 2017 that uses face recognition technology for identity verification to expedite self-service departure for visitors without the need for prior enrolment.

By the end of 2018, more than 6.2 million visitors had used the service.