Face-Recognition Technology at Palma Airport
From this summer there will be twelve new machines placed at the airport
Francisco Martinez, the Safety Secretary of Spain, announced in Palma last Tuesday that the new facial-recognition technology would allow EU resident passengers coming from outside the boundaries of the EU to enter without having to wait in long queues to have the Guardia Civil officers confirm their identity.
The new process should reduce the time it takes to pass through the border to around 30 seconds per person as they pass through the new machines. It will identify the passenger using their electronic passport, fingerprint and facial features. You must be over 18 to use the machine and have a valid passport or ID card from an EU country, Iceland, Norway, Liechtenstein or Switzerland.
“This system is a tool to facilitate border crossing and reinforce safety,” said Mr Martinez.
Although I would imagine that it will also speed up the process for all passengers re-entering the EU through Palma which in turn cannot help but free up the Guardia Civil to perform identity checks on all other holiday passengers - a win-win situation!
The twelve new machines will be operational at the airport for the summer season 2015.
