Zap Yourself Through The Airport - automated passport check

thongd4me · May 25, 2011

Airport to Get Automatic Passport Check System

Suvarnabhumi Airport has invested more than 76 million baht on an automatic passport inspection system to address the problem of overcrowding at the immigration checkpoints.

Deputy director of the Suvarnabhumi Airport, Wilaiwan Nadwilai, reported that to address the problem of overcrowding and lines at immigration checkpoints, more than 76 million baht have been invested for the installation of an automatic passport inspection system.

Eight machines will be installed at the arrival section and another eight at the departure section.

Passengers will be able to check themselves in and out without the need for immigration officials.

This will reduce the immigration processing time from 45 seconds per person to 25 seconds.

The airport expects the system to go online at the end of the year.

Wilaiwan also said that the airport authority is currently drawing up the terms of reference for the bidding process for the installation of an air conditioning system.

She believes that the winning contractor will be able to start the installation later this year.

On our next trip to Thailand we will be going via Helsinki

Automatic processing of biometric passports starts at Helsinki-Vantaa Airport

Technology also to be introduced at harbours and on Russian border

print thisPassports with biometric identification can be inspected in just 15 seconds with a new machine that has been introduced for the purpose at Helsinki-Vantaa Airport.

Ten new automatic passport scanners were taken into use at the airport on Thursday. In addition to them, passports can still be cleared manually at eight other inspection points.

There was confusion among some travellers. “It seemed a bit difficult. I didn’t know which way I should stand”, said Ulla Veijanen, who left on a holiday trip to the Egyptian resort of Sharm el Sheikh.

The automatic passport scanners can be used by all citizens of the European Union, the European Economic Area, and Switzerland who have biometric identification in their passports.

Pentti Alapelto, head of the Helsinki border inspection section of the Finnish Border Guard, says that the aim is to develop the system so that citizens of third countries could also use the scanners.

Passports with biometric identification are becoming increasingly common. All EU passports will be biometric by 2017.

The scanners have been in experimental use for two weeks, and passengers have generally found them easy to use.

The scanners have doubled the capacity of passport clearance at Helsinki-Vantaa Airport, which now has the most extensive automatic passport inspection system of all European airports.

Alapelto believes that by speeding up the passport checking process, the scanners will do their part to ease the overcrowding at the airport. Traditional manual inspection can take several minutes, while using the scanner takes about 15 seconds.

More of the devices are coming next year, when 15 new scanners will be made available for arriving passengers, in addition to the three that are there already.

The devices are also to be introduced to border stations at the Port of Helsinki and the land border with Russia.