I had just checked in for my flight at Rio de Janeiro's international airport Sunday night and was headed for immigration when I saw the line of passengers.

It stretched from the entrance of the immigration section down about a good 50 yards through the airport - people waiting to get their passports stamped and clear security.

Having survived Brazil's air traffic collapse of 2006-2007, I thought I knew what to expect: An hour or two of torture and official ineptitude, maybe even missing my flight, which took off in 90 minutes.

Nonetheless, I took my place at the end of the column of hundreds of people and prepared to take the punishment.

To my and my neighbors' surprise, however, the line advanced at a brisk pace, and within 20 minutes, I was through the front doors and about to get my passport stamped.

Immigration officials looking concerned about the long line opened up a whole other bank of passport terminals in another room and waved dozens of us through. All in all, it looked like some 18 officials were stamping passports, and the line quickly dwindled.

Maybe, non-Brazilians reading this are thinking, "What's the big deal? It sounds like common sense." But that's not the case in Brazil, where its gargantuan bureaucracy was long second to none. Just five years ago, in fact, the previous paragraph would have sounded like science fiction.

Bureaucrats concerned, actually concerned about customer service, and then doing something about it? Opening up 18 immigration booths to get more people through the terminal? This, in Brazil, is progress.

I remember arriving at the same airport from the United States in January, when only two officials were checking passports for a line of hundreds of people arriving on two flights.

One foreign passenger mistakenly thought an official was waving him in and approached the booth. The official , however, was stamping in Brazilians and halted the foreigner in the rudest way imaginable, bellowing in English, "No, foreigners wait there!!" as he pointed to the other line.

We passengers were shocked, even embarrassed by this outburst, but the official clearly looked like he couldn't care less about what we thought.

That, for decades, was the rule here. Getting phone service took years of waiting. Receiving a passport too. The bureaucracy moved at its own paleolithic pace and actively showed that the needs of the little people were afterthoughts.

Much has been made lately of Brazil finally getting things right, as its economy takes off, inflation remains tamed and billions of barrels of oil are scheduled to come on-line.

People have noticed the improvement in their everyday lives, as privatized phone companies move more quickly to resolve problems (although Kafkaesque screw-ups are still common) and government bureaucrats can generally be trusted to do what they're supposed to.

What I saw at the airport was evidence of this. A small step, but at least it's in the right direction.