Touchdown to customs exit in 12 minutes.
 

I can be fairly critical of HKG at times, but everything went my way last night.

CO127 touched down at 9:26p on 7L. Straight shot to Gate 20, the closest one to immigration. Door opened at 9:30p.

I got off plane a minute later from 1st row in coach, behind only the 14 in F. Matched straight to e-channel gates, with zero wait time.

Used the boy's room, grabbed a cart, and in under a minute, my 3 *A Priority-tagged bags came out at Carousel 6, one of those near the ceter - they were among the first 10 of so bags delivered.

9:38p I was in the arrivals hall. ^

Had the same pleasure off CA flights from PEK that arrived around the same hours.

Since many flights for Europe leave around that time, arrival is fairly easy!

I usually take CO99, which prior to the UA merger used to come into a gate in the 20's on the south side. But since last the merger, it's been out there in the 60's. Just getting to the trains can take 20 minutes from the time the wheels touched ground.

Must be a full moon! ;)

Lucky you, with 3 kids and arriving at 3-5pm from Europe, it always takes ages to get our bags. We are not any elites with any airlines and somehow our bags always come out last.

HKG is my fav airport except the HK immigration dept staffs - they are by far with the worst attitude (don't know if it's because I used it with Mr. Nacho and our kids who are not HK nationals - I know it's allowed). Those are the most unfriendly people we encounter in HK.

What's particularly impressive is that your baggage arrived on the carousel in less than 8 minutes. They can't even do that at BUR with the aircraft parking right outside the luggage area.

Imagine if every airport runs like HKG. What are we going to do with our extra time? :)

I believe they have an automated system. And we are a narrowbody parked at the closest gate to the baggage claim. Which makes it possible. A containerized 777 or 744 parked at Gate 60 takes a lot more time...

I saw a documentary series of the building and operation of HKIA on Discovery channels a while back:
I remember most plane at gate the luggage is unloaded directly onto the conveyor system.
This cut into the delay time as bags needed to be loaded onto the "train" driven to baggage claim and then loaded onto the conveyer that takes it down.
Smaller planes that do not use the container system like the 744 and 777 would see the most time savings.
Even with 744/777 containers HKIA, in HK tradition of efficiency are normally 20-30 minutes faster than international airports in North America.

I love the fact they have a separate immigration line for those with passes to trade shows ! Wonderful

I would respectfully like to disagree... Sure, one gets the usual mix of "friendlies" and "un-friendlies", the flexible and the not-so-flexible, but bottom line I believe it is one of the best organised, efficient and also friendliest immigration departments in Asia and I'm going through there a couple of times a week.

Like it or hate it, HK Immigration is the type that takes your passport, scan it, stamp it, hand it back out to you in the shortest time with the least facial movement possible. The officers won't waste your time or their own energy.

I saw the title of this thread and almost fell over.

Okay, guys. Big confession. Upon reviewing my notes, I realize I have made a mistake... It wasn't really as impressive.

9:20p Wheels touched ground on Runway 7L
9:26p Doors opened at Gate 20
~9:35p Priority-bags came out
~9:37p Out customs door

So, it was actually 17 minutes, not 12. But still, bags were delivered around 8-9 minutes after parking at the gate.

Sometime, I can't get into NYC subway in 17 min.