Gatwick Airport wins award for use of biometrics

Gatwick Airport won the “Best Security and Immigration” Experience award for the significant upgrades that have been made to its security and immigration processes.

The improvements have been made as part of the airport’s £1.2 billion capital investment program.

The award recognized the airport’s outstanding efforts to improve the passenger experience and was presented at the Second Annual Future Travel Experience Awards Gala in Vancouver, Canada.

One of the airport’s passenger commitments is wait reductions and the airport has succeeded in cutting waiting times, which is highlighted by the fact that the average waiting time at security now stands at just slightly one and a half minutes.

To simplify access to the security search zone, facial recognition technology has been implemented, while dedicated special assistance and family lanes have been introduced. The centralized security area in the South Terminal can now handle as many as 5,000 passengers per hour. In both the North and South Terminals, immigration e-Gates have been installed to expedite and automate border clearance for e-Passport holders.

The award gave particular mention to the innovative passenger identification solutions integrated within the new £45m South Terminal Search Area. In operation since June 2011, the MFlow Track and MFlow Journey platforms, developed by Human Recognition Systems, were selected by Gatwick to help revolutionize the passenger experience and enhance security.

In a world first deployment of ‘iris at a distance’ technology and incorporating 30 iris recognition units integrated into advanced eGate lanes, MFlow Track has significantly helped improve passenger flow and heighten security within the South Terminal. This was achieved by associating passengers’ unique iris patterns to their boarding passes to prevent them from swapping with others in an attempt to board flights they are not authorised to.

Simultaneously the MFlow Journey platform deployed at Gatwick incorporates passive facial recognition technology to track and manage people flow through the Airport. Another world first deployment, this has provided Gatwick with the ability to view and respond to real-time passenger journey and queue measurement information helping to manage and reduce passenger queues while providing a truly future proofed capability.

Article Topics

airport biometrics  |  biometrics  |  border security  |  security