According to SEF, in this new space at the Humberto Delgado Airport, seven passenger control positions were placed, two with ‘e-gates’ for automated border control, which aim to reduce queues and ensure the “faster control” of passengers at arrivals.
SEF chose a flight from the United Kingdom to mark the entry into operation of this electronic equipment, in a ceremony attended by the Minister of Internal Affairs, Eduardo Cabrita, the Assistant Secretary of State and Communications, Alberto Souto de Miranda, the president the board of directors of ANA - Aeroportos de Portugal, José Luís Arnault, and the director of SEF, Cristina Gatões.
The SEF director explained to journalists that the new area will allow the processing of 700 passengers per hour and about 30 flights per day.
These seven electronic devices are part of the 49 new generation ‘e-gates’ that SEF acquired and which will start operating in the coming weeks at the airports of Faro and Madeira and which allows processing “passports with biometric data more quickly”.
Porto is also expected to start operating this system, but there is no date yet for this.
“This technological response represents around €5 million of public investment in 49 new electronic control positions”, the Minister of Internal Administration told reporters, adding that the largest placement of these structures will take place at Porto airport, in a total of 16 new units due to their growth.
Eduardo Cabrita explained that this new equipment is part of the “improvement of conditions at Lisbon airport”, stressing that two years ago he developed an action plan that was presented to ANA and that determined “a set of changes that were necessary in Portuguese airports to improve reception conditions for passengers from non-Schengen areas”.
The minister pointed out that one of these responses has also been the recruitment of inspectors for SEF, considering that it was “the biggest since 2005”.
Eduardo Cabrita also praised the “responsiveness” that SEF inspectors have given to the growth in the number of passengers.
In turn, the chairman of ANA’s board of directors told reporters that this new area “will surely help to improve the problem of queues at the entrance to Lisbon airport in the border control area”.
Emphasising that the issue of queues at border control is the responsibility of SEF and not ANA, José Luís Arnault acknowledged that this situation “is in fact a problem” that has been improved.
However, he stated that this situation persists and, as an example, he referred that, in January, there was “an average of one hour and seven minutes of waiting during peak hours”.
“We are confident that with these improvements and new technologies and with these investments we can contribute to reducing the situation, which is one that does not make anyone happy,” he concluded.