Should business travellers get through the airport faster than other passengers? It’s a question that has been taxing me in recent weeks.

My nearest airport is Luton and it is one I use all the time. The airport recently introduced a pay-as-you-go fast channel that lets you skip to the front of the queue. At the top of the escalators into departures, you can now peek through and see whether there is a winding snake of holidaymakers and, if so, choose to pay £3 to go right to the front.

What really got me thinking was a Meet and Assist service offered by a company called DiamondAir International that I tried recently. When I was first told about what the company did, I was surprised that the airports and airlines allowed it. Arriving into the airport – in my case Gatwick – I was met at the gate of a plane by one of the company’s employees, John. We zoomed off at high speed to customs and jumped right to the front of the passport queue. A neat trick if you can get away with it. John, it seems, knows everyone and can make things go more smoothly.

Then it’s off to collect the bags. Sadly, John has no magical way of making the bags appear faster so we stand and wait and chat. The service is used by both VIPs and top executives of companies, although he refrains from mentioning exactly who. Much of the success of the service is down to DiamondAir founder Christina Lawford’s energy and tenacity is getting agreement from the airport operators as well as the personal networks of the greeters.

The bag arrives and John is off like a shot. There’s just one oddity. We have to take the red channel rather than the green and we are confronted by a customs officer. John flashes his ID card and, after a few moments of scrutiny of card, John and me, the officer waves us through. “It’s just in case you had anything in your luggage. We could be seen to be colluding with you,” he laughs.

Just over 35 minutes after disembarking, I am out of the airport. The fee for the service is £65, rather more than Luton’s £3. With the passport queue, I felt a bit of a fraud jumping to the front but getting through Gatwick in 35 minutes is a personal best.

Let’s get back to the question of whether business travellers should be allowed to use fast track services on payment of a fee or a higher fare. Everyone I have asked who travels only for leisure reasons says no. Every business traveller I have talked to says yes.

There are other options. In the US, Denver and Salt Lake City airports have introduced channels aimed at different types of passenger: families, frequent travellers who want to whiz through as quickly as possible and know instinctively when and whether to remove shoes and laptops and infrequent travellers who are unsure of the procedures and don’t mind taking a little more time. Although the security screening in all three channels is the same and passengers are free to join any queue they like, it has speeded the journey of business travellers through the airport.

The increasing unbundling of the cost of air travel which has seen the introduction of checked bag fees and in-flight food costs means that we are likely to see more of these schemes popping up. The user pays principle is a strong one and if people (or their companies) are happy to pay then I can live with that. What I’m hoping is that more and more travellers start using these fast channels, leaving the regular channels free of both charge and people.