Montevideo’s Carrasco International Airport has implemented self-service Automated Border Control.
Called Easy Airport, the ABC eGates offer passengers self-service Automated Border Control in Uruguay for the first time.
The ABC eGates in Arrivals are from Vision-Box and offer a full self-service experience: ensuring passport authentication, background checks and biometric passenger verification.
The system compares the facial image stored in the chip of the passengers’ passport against the live captured image, all according to the highest quality and security international standards, making sure that the passenger has a valid document and is the genuine owner of the document. After this first step is successfully accomplished, the passenger is asked to select his/her flight through a user-friendly display available at the eGate.
Eng. Ricardo Cerri, CTO at Puerta del Sur (who operate the airport):
“The new procedure will have a huge impact in streamlining passenger journey at the airport, especially with the reduction of waiting times. We are expecting a reduction of transaction times per person in migratory procedures to drop around 65%, which is a direct benefit to the user of Easy Airport, but also for the users of manual booths, which will also be relieved from congestion. We are very happy to be able to offer our travelers more convenience, agility and efficiency while contributing in securing the border control in Uruguay.”
Easy Airport is available for all international flights. Eligible passengers are all Uruguayan citizens with electronic document (Passport or Identity Card with chip) older than 18 years; in the future, Argentine citizens are expected to be able to use the eGates.
Optimized Manned Border Control
The ABC eGates in Easy Airport are reinforced by the simultaneous modernization of assisted procedures.
Travel document readers and finger print scanners were introduced in 2014 into manual document control procedures for arriving and departing passengers.
Now the manned control booths have been endowed with new touchpoints to optimize processes: vb AIC desktops (Automated Immigration Control) are being used to assist Border Guards in identifying passengers.
The passenger simply presents his face and fingerprints to the desktop, to be respectively matched with the travel document and the Immigration backend system in order to be correctly identified.
SISCA – Integrated Airport Security and Control System
Easy Airport is part of a grander plan called SISCA. This is a comprehensive program that analyzes, develops and makes use of the best technologies and procedures to control and secure airport facilities, verify passengers and cargo, as well as facilitate passengers along their airport journey.
The platform just implemented is ready to support the current and future stages of SISCA. It is expected that an End-to-End Passenger Flow system based on a single biometric token is implemented covering most of the passenger identification touch-points – such as security checkpoints and self-boarding gates –, as well as vb orchestra™, a passenger-centric and comprehensive common-use based suite for airport, airlines, and governments’ managed services, with rich, flexible intelligence tools for informed decision-making and data-driven airport management.
Jean-François Lennon, Vice-President for Global Business Development & Sales of Vision-Box™ already foresees that “aligned with the vision of Corporación America, the airport itself and the country, this solution is expected to grow even further towards a completely self-service integrated passenger experience, processing all passengers arriving or departing, connecting all entry and exit touch points.”
The introduction of this integrated border management solution, together with the implementation of SISCA, opens way to a range of international collaborative border control initiatives, tighter security and enhanced efficiencies.
The program, participated by other countries, allows for the capture, reception and sharing of information on passengers with border control authorities even outside Uruguay.
This includes passenger identity, booking details, payment method, rented vehicles, baggage taken to the seat on the plane: every detailed information allows for a beforehand analysis by the Uruguayan authorities on expected passengers’ profile, risk assessment, verification against watch lists, predictive analysis, the anticipation of threats at the border, and the intelligent management of resources according to needs.
Additionally, the planned introduction of biometrics into an Advance Passenger Information set of data, and its combination with the biographic capabilities, will allow for authorities to establish, up-front, the risk-based assessment of passengers , acting on it early in the process, focus on persons of interest and provide better border services including streamlining their ground operation and creating more hassle-free experiences.
N.B. Image credit: Vision-Box
