Aena’s investment in the system that will control the borders of its airports has received the interest of four companies: Indra, Telefónica, NTT Data and Inetum. The four companies have presented their credentials to the airport manager, who must now decide who advances in the process. The company chaired by Maurici Lucena has earmarked an investment of 127 million euros to implement the EES (Exit/Entry System) system that speeds up border control. The framework agreement has a duration of four years and does not include the possibility of extension.
Some of the companies have come alone and others through alliances. This last case is that of Telefónica, which has presented its proposal with Thales, which has already shown experience in this field. The French company has been awarded other similar projects in airports such as France, where it was selected by the country’s Ministry of the Interior to deliver several hundred pre-registration kiosks at various border crossings.
Another company that is not attending alone is NTT Data, the former Everis, which has allied with Idemia. The companies that go it alone are Indra, which participates together with Sistemas Informáticos Abiertos (SIA), from the same group, and Inetum, which participated in a pilot test in 2021 together with Vueling in a facial recognition system to facilitate the billing process and passenger boarding.
All the firms have presented their offer for the same bidding amount, without any drop in the budget set. Although there is no set date to complete the file, knowledgeable sources explain, Aena has set a period of eight months to resolve the contest.
In addition to the kiosks, the public company will adapt its ABC (Automated Border Control) gate system, which must be certified by the National Police and have a compatible operating system (Microsoft Windows 10 or higher). It is expected that up to 16 airports in the entire network will be affected by these actions, including those with the highest capacity, such as Adolfo Suárez-Madrid Barajas and Barcelona-El Prat.
Brussels Petition
The Aena process responds to the decision of the European Commission, which in 202 requested Member States to implement a biometric entry and exit system to register non-European citizens who cross an external border of the European Union.
The new directive, which emanates from regulation 2017/2226 of the European Parliament and of the Council in November 2017, establishes that pre-registration kiosks or similar equipment must be deployed to allow visitors from outside the Schengen area to register their identity quickly and secure, including your biometric data (fingerprint and facial biometrics).
The airport manager assumes this important cost, the item of which is included in the budgets of the current airport regulation document (DORA II) for the years 2022-2026. The current framework of understanding between the airport manager and the airlines provides for investments in “state-of-the-art technologies in security controls to improve the efficiency of processes and facilitate passenger transit.”
This article is originally published on eleconomista.es
