Malaga airport (AGP), gateway to Spain’s Costa del Sol, has started using an automated border control system.
Supplied by Indra and IECISA the solution verifies the passenger’s documentation and checks identity by analysing the passenger’s biometric parameters.
The solution is going into service after a successful pilot project using Indra’s technology at Madrid Barajas and Barcelona El Prat.
The system is part of the Global Border Management and Integration Program that is starting in Spain. The goal of this initiative is to use the technology to manage in a comprehensive way all air and sea borders with large amounts of passenger movement from Spain.
Citizens of the European Union, Iceland, Norway and Liechtenstein (European Economic Area) and Switzerland who have an electronic passport will be able to use the ABC system, in addition to Spanish citizens who have an electronic DNI (national identity card), and who arrive in Málaga from countries outside of the Schengen area.
The solution consists of a terminal where the passenger inserts his or her electronic DNI or Passport. The ABC system verifies the authenticity of the document and checks that it does in fact match the bearer by means of biometric analysis of the person’s fingerprints and facial features.
Once this check has been passed, the traveler heads to the exit check gate, which has a sensor that will verify the person’s fingerprints again in order to provide access. In this way, the maximum amount of convenience can be provided to the traveler and the workload is reduced for National Police Force agents, who only need to intervene in the event that an anomaly is detected.
The system has been installed at the airport’s Terminal T2, which has 3 unattended documentation control devices and one gate with fingerprint biometric identification, and at Terminal T3, which has 4 control devices and 2 gates.
ABC4EU
This year, the European Commission has entrusted Indra with leadership of the European R&D project, ABC4EU (Automated Border Gates for Europe), on which 15 partners from 7 different countries are working.
This initiative’s goal is to harmonize the various types of ABC systems that exist in the continent’s different countries so that passengers always have the same user experience and facilitate implementation of the system independently of the provider that has developed it. Furthermore, the system will be prepared so that it can verify next-generation digital documents and there will be an analysis of the possibility of citizens from countries not belonging to the European Union also using the system, which would expand its use to a greater number of travelers.
N.B. Image credit: aena-aeropuertos.es
