“The old security product was spread across three locations on two floors, so we’ve created a new single security area,” said Geoff Williams, Head of Security, Gatwick Airport. “An interesting statistic is that every second, a passenger will be leaving the security area and entering the departure lounge. The idea of passengers queuing for no more than five minutes fits in with our motto: ‘We hate queues’.”
An innovative aspect of the security product is the airport’s adoption of Iris at a Distance (IaaD) technology. The technology is known as MFlow Track and has been supplied by Human Recognition Systems in partnership with AOptix Technologies Inc. It is able to locate and capture the iris of the passenger, as opposed to the user having to stand in an exact location for the capture to be successfully completed, thus speeding up the process. All the passenger has to do is place their boarding pass on a reader and the gate opens within three seconds.
Colour coding and screens displaying actual queuing times have also been implemented to simplify the security process as far as possible. Williams said: “The idea is to make the whole process more welcoming. We’re giving people a choice and they are able to avoid the longest queues if they’re in a hurry. Not all travellers are the same.
“Having listened to our passengers and watched their behaviour in the security area, we have provided different services for families, PRMs (Passengers with Reduced Mobility) and others who might need some assistance, and we have created two special lanes just for those groups. This has also allowed us to speed up processing through the other lanes.”
Flexible design
Due to the ever-changing nature of airport security, Williams also explained that flexibility has been built into the new security product to ensure that London Gatwick is well positioned to react to any future developments.
“Extra cabling and space has been built in should we need to adopt new technology in the future,” he said. “The security process will continue to evolve and we’ll be able to respond very rapidly.”
For the passenger, however, the focus is not on the long-term security plans, but on the product that is offered now and while the aim to process all passengers within five minutes may appear optimistic, at present, the average passenger travelling from London Gatwick completes the security process in less than two minutes.
Airport Business
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