Edinburgh Airport is to enhance the passenger experience with electronic security gates (e-gates) that are designed to speed-up the immigration process.
It will be the first installation of e-gates at a Scottish airport. Five e-gates will be installed in the next two weeks; they will be available to UK and EU travellers with an e-Passport.
Details from an electronic chip contained in the e-Passport will be compared with an image of the passenger’s face taken at the e-gate, replacing the traditional manual check by UK Border Agency officials.
The airport handled 9.3 million passengers in 2011 and the new e-gates will help ease congestion at peak times.
Meanwhile, two additional X-ray machines will be installed in the hand-baggage search area in May, increasing the total to 12. A new passenger and hand-baggage security check area was opened as part of a major terminal extension in 2010.
