More than 40 new automated passport control (APC) kiosks have gone live at JetBlue’s new international arrivals hall extension at Terminal 5 (T5) at JFK International Airport.
The kiosks are provided by SITA and allow passengers to provide their travel document, biometric data and customs declaration before speaking to a US Customs and Border Protection officer, off-loading work from the immigration counters.
In total, 41 Phase 3 APC kiosks are being supplied by SITA at T5. These have been approved by the US Customs and Border Protection for accurate data collection and verification of passenger facial and fingerprint biometrics against passengers’ passports. This means that they can be used to process any passenger from the USA, Canada or any of the 38 visa waiver countries.
How it works
- Passengers scan their passports
- then they answer a series of biographic questions and complete their customs declaration forms using the touch screen kiosks
- their photo is taken, and a receipt is printed which indicates whether or not the passenger has been selected for further screening
- passengers show this receipt as their ‘ticket’ out of passport control
The new international arrivals hall also has 10 Global Entry kiosks.
Eash Sundaram, CIO, JetBlue:
“At JetBlue our goal is to put the pleasure back into flying and this includes the arrival experience of our international passengers. We have invested in all our facilities and as part of this SITA’s easy-to-use kiosks will help travelers on arrival and continue the great JetBlue experience on the ground.
“We examined what was available in the market and SITA won us over with its experience and the kiosks’ functionality and flexibility. Things like the automatic height adjustment, reactive lighting and SITA’s ambassador application, all added up to the best experience we could offer our passengers.”
Paul Houghton, SITA President, Americas:
“JetBlue is an airline that has the passenger experience at its core and it was great that we at SITA were able to meet its exacting standards with our automated passport control kiosks. International passengers arriving with JetBlue and its partner airlines will now enjoy a fast and hassle-free move through customs and immigration at JFK T5 with just a few touches of buttons on the SITA APC kiosks.”
SITA has also supplied APC kiosks to airports across the United States including Orlando, Miami, Tampa, Boston, Los Angeles and Philadelphia.
N.B. Image credit: SITA
