Curaçao International Airport inaugurates Automated Border Control solution

A new self-service passenger clearance solution by Vision-Box has gone live in Curac?ao (Caribbean) to expedite border control processes at both arrivals and departures

Vision-Box worldwide-leading Automated Border Control eGates were recently inaugurated at Curac?ao International Airport to make every traveler’s first and last island experience a pleasant one. Focused on improving the experience of 350,000 yearly European and North American tourists on the beautiful tropical island, Curac?ao Airport Holding N.V. (CAH) selected Vision-Box as their partner to implement a full-fledged ABC solution for both arrivals and departures terminals of the airport. KPMG in the Dutch Caribbean coordinated the project from the ground.

Curac?ao International Airport has just inaugurated a state-of-the-art integrated Automated Border Control solution that will help with the challenges of expediting and facilitating traveler airport clearance and make the airport even more welcoming to the eyes of all visitors.

Experiencing an exponential growth in the number of leisure and business travelers combined with a strategic planning to expand their capacity from 1.6 to 2.5 million passengers a year, Curac?ao International Airport Holding turned to Vision-Box, the leading company in Identity Management and Passenger Experience, at the end of 2015, to help increase the airport capacity through the design and implementation of an intelligent Passenger Flow system.

The result of this collaboration was the launch of a customized integrated Border Control solution based on self-service eGates, combining attractive and ergonomic common-use hardware and intuitive graphical interfaces for a unique Passenger Experience. Whether arriving or departing, locals and tourists (staying up to 3 months) over 18 years of age, and holding a European, Canadian or American ePassport are now able to use the eGates and control their own clearance process, authenticating their passport and claiming their identity through facial biometric verification.

Ergonomically designed to fit seamlessly into the airport’s infrastructure, the eGates offer a smooth experience and a straightforward process to passengers: on approaching the eGate and selecting their flight, passengers validate their passports using an innovative document reader feeder with 100% reading success rate, allowing for a perfect placement and reading time of the travel document. After that, they simply look at a camera and a biometric photo of their facial features is automatically taken, verifying the photo against the information stored in their passports’ chip. This takes just a few seconds. No further process or direct interaction with Border Officers is needed: border is cleared!

A powerful common-use-based orchestration platform connecting all passenger touchpoints provides Border Guards with a real-time view of the passengers’ individual clearance processes (allowing for a prompt reaction to inconsistencies or threats), as well as centralized control and optimization of the whole security infrastructure. This guarantees a reliable identification of travelers and of persons of interest, process exception handling and the overall monitoring metrics of traveler flows, through potent, scalable data analytics capabilities.

This powerful software suite is interfaced to the new electronic Embarkation /Disembarkation system (tourists staying up to 3 months have to fill in the E/D Card online, 24 hours before departure, to use the system). It also natively integrates with the AODB flight list supplied by the Curac?ao Airport Partners and with the Border Management System of the Curac?ao Police Force (Korps Politie Curac?ao) for improved real-time passenger background checks including API (Advance Passenger Information) on arrival.

Devised for managed services, the system combines smart management dashboards of relevant data inputs and outputs for all stakeholders (border control authorities, government, airport and airlines), always complying with the Privacy by Design principle for secure, segmented information transactions.

According to Jean-Franc?ois Lennon, Vice-President for Global Business Development and Sales, “Curac?ao International Airport is now endowed with a future-proof technological framework that guarantees improved security and the expedited flow of low risk passengers, thus establishing the sustainable foundations of the island’s planned growth. The intricate, intelligent security infrastructure won’t scratch passenger experience – on the contrary! This will be experienced by the modern traveler as a positive leap, right into the future. Either on holiday or on business visit, the passenger will feel empowered, excited and fulfilled to experiment this hassle-free way of crossing the border. In fact, he is at the very heart of it.”

Mr. Wilhelmus Ignacio, one of the main pioneers behind the eGates project, spoke about the ease in experience brought by the eGate use at the Curac?ao International Airport: “the eGates allow the airport to become more modern, inviting passengers to enjoy easy border control check. Aside from this benefit, it also allows the airport stakeholders, to increase airport security, facilitation of travel, and enhanced border system integrity. It’s a transformation that is placing Curac?ao International Airport in the forefront of Innovation in Airport Management and Passenger Experience in the region.”