BI Installs E-Gate System in PH Airports To Make Passenger Processing Faster
Travelers in the Philippines will not find a lot of things worse than being delayed from their supposedly early flight—may it be seconds, minutes, hours, or days. To aid this unfortunate occurrence, the Bureau of Immigration (BI) launched the Electronic Gate System (EGate) at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) on July 20, 2018.
The gates intend to cut the processing time for travelers to a quarter of the previous 45 seconds/PHOTO Bureau of Immigration on Facebook
As of October, there are 13 E-gates that are fully operational in NAIA Terminals 1 and 3, Mactan airport has 3, and Davao airport has 2. Clark airport is yet to have 3 E-gates before the end of December 2018.
According to BI Commissioner Jaime H. Morente, the newly-installed EGates at NAIA may cut the processing time for passengers from 45 seconds to just 8 to 15 seconds. “This project could not have come at a more opportune time in view of the steadily increasing volume of international flights and travelers that enter and exit the country every day,” said the BI Chief.
The innovative E-Gates are capable of recognizing faces, biometric scanning, barcode reading, and smart card recognition at once. To sum it up, 21 E-Gates will be installed and operational before 2019 in 5 major international airports of the country.
In a press release dated November 28, BI Port Operations Division Chief Grifton Medina addressed the traveling public to be patient whenever the e-gates encounter technical problems. Such incidents are normal for new projects that go through what he calls “birth pains.” Medina said the BI’s computer specialists are doing their best to address minor technical issues of the project so that such occurrences that inconvenience passengers are minimized, if not eliminated.
In a report from the Philippine Information Agency’s office, the Php 329-million project by BI was completely funded by the national government and is an initiative of the International Air Transport Association (IATA) to further develop its Fast Travel program.
Source: Bureau of Immigration, PTV News
