Airport officials insist the long delays experienced by visitors and returning residents at the Airport are due to "teething problems'' which will soon be ironed out.

The latest setback with the new Customs system occured yesterday when overheated conveyor belts broke down.

The Customs area in the Airport has been changed recently to try and speed up the clearance process.

Assistant Collector of Customs Brenda Raynor said there have been teething problems because of space limitations and the location of the Customs desk.

The desk is to be moved and it is expected more space will be available next year enabling more officers to be added to deal with lines.

"We feel that this new procedure is going to ease people's passage through Customs greatly,'' Mrs. Raynor said in an interview last week. "It will certainly reduce the time spent by most people in the Customs area because it enables people to take care of their business while waiting for bags to arrive.'' The new system is being run as a pilot project but it is hoped it will become official soon -- and new computer equipment will also be installed to further speed up the process.

Mrs. Raynor said under the new procedure a returning resident with goods to declare can go to the eastern end of the arrivals hall.

There a Customs officer will verify the form and duties can be paid -- while the traveller waits for baggage to arrive.

The person will then be told by a Customs officer either to wait in line for a baggage inspection or leave the Airport.

Mrs. Raynor added: "We have started to station officers at the lines so that they can explain to people where to go and take people out of the line if they don't need to be there.

"We are also going to be eliminating the form we use to deal with duty so that instead of filling it out with long-hand and computing the duty owed to Government the officer can simply enter it into a computerised form which does all the mathematical work.'' November and December is the busiest time at the Airport as people travel overseas for Christmas shopping.

Normally Customs collects about $4 million in duties annually -- a quarter of which comes in November alone and Mrs. Raynor warned returning residents to declare all goods bought abroad.

"The number of people we have stopped and found to be carrying dutiable goods not declared and paid for has gone up more than four times during the current month.

"In November last year we seized goods from four people for making false declarations.

"Up to Wednesday, that is for the first 27 days of November this year, we seized goods from 17 people for making false declarations,'' said Mrs. Raynor.

"We urge people to declare what they bring in truthfully and pay the duty owed.'' Photos by Tony Cordeiro CHECK IN -- Conika Furbert hands her forms to the Customs officer at the new airport desk.

LEAVIN' -- Audrey Braxton leaves the airport after checking out the new Customs clearance procedure.