They are easy to spot: the business travellers who seem born into the mould of professional passengers. They have just the right-sized carry-on bag, wheeled past the check-in queue at a pace that says they know it will fit in the overhead bin. The case is matched by a laptop bag built for the X-ray machine and slides easily under the seat on the plane. The belt is off before the security officer points to it. By the time the amateur behind them has finished emptying pockets into trays, they are already in a lounge or at the gate.Of course, not everyone can be a pro traveller. But no-one has to be that guy. The one who stands in the security line for 20 minutes and, only when they get to the checkpoint, begins emptying metal objects from their pockets, discovering the half-litre bottle of water in a backpack, and arguing with security about removing a jacket. Oh, and the laptop is packed somewhere deep in the carry-on suitcase.The difference between these two travellers has nothing to do with how many miles they’ve flown or how many lounge passes are loaded onto their phone. It comes down to a handful of items: passport or ID, boarding pass, phone, laptop, the contents of a pocket or jacket.The jacket is a test in itself. It has to come off regardless, so the only question should be whether it is already unzipped or half-shrugged-off by the time the officer asks.A full bottle is usually a mistake and a nonevent ― because it is instantly dumped in a bin. But discovered half-full, it becomes an argument for that guy who thinks a quarter-full 330ml bottle is legally compliant with the 100ml liquid limit. Or the 200ml tub of moisturiser that is only a third full.The bag itself has to do some of the work. A laptop bag with a dedicated sleeve, easily unzipped, buys back time lost to security. The better designs keep that sleeve on the outside face of the bag, so the laptop can come out without anything else coming with it. The same applies to a phone, a watch, a belt, loose change and the house keys. A small pouch or a single jacket pocket means there is one place these things go, rather than pockets being patted down under the gaze of a security officer.At security, in effect, the bag’s design is being tested in public. The pro passenger’s tray fills itself in the time it takes to say “laptop, phone, belt”.That traveller’s tray fills in stages, as items are located rather than retrieved. A security line moves at the pace of its slowest tray and every traveller who improvises at the X-ray machine is setting that pace.A passport or identification demands the same treatment as the laptop: it goes in one place, and that place is not the bottom of a bag. The pro passenger has it out, or is one zip away from out, at each moment of the document check. Same applies to the boarding pass. It needs to be alive on the phone, in a wallet app and the airline app, because either can fail at the key moment. The pro even has a screenshot saved as backup in case the airport’s Wi-Fi has other ideas.That traveller, by contrast, is patting down pockets at security, then scrolling through emails, for a problem that 20 seconds of preparation would have avoided.The gate is the test with the least excuse for failing. When the group number or category is called, there should be nothing to do but walk up and present a boarding pass. That traveller, who has had the same 40 minutes of sitting at the gate as everyone else, treats the boarding call as a surprise, with phone locked and pass lost again, or patting down the same pockets that failed them at security.None of this requires expensive gear or frequent-flyer status.The pro passenger wasn’t born a pro. They learnt from their own mistakes, and fixed them. And keep fixing them as security and boarding protocols change.That traveller never bothers to learn.• Arthur Goldstuck is CEO of World Wide Worx, editor-in-chief of Gadget.co.za, editor of GadgetWings, and author of ‘The Hitchhiker’s Guide to AI — The African Edge’.