Frankfurt Airport – a Corporate Partner of the FTE Digital, Innovation & Startup Hub – is “the world’s first airport” to regularly employ walkthrough scanners for passenger security checks. Following a one-year test phase at Concourse A in Terminal 1, the German Federal Police has authorised the full-scale use of the Rohde & Schwarz QPS Walk2000 air travel security system. The QPS Walk2000 is said to provide significantly greater comfort and convenience at security checks: travellers can simply walk through the scanner at a normal speed.
About 18,000 departing passengers commute through this checkpoint daily. Going forward, the outlook is to extend the use of this technology to additional security check lanes in Terminal 1 and also deploy it in the new Terminal 3.
“We’re the world’s first airport to set a new standard of passenger security with this 360° walkthrough scanner,” said Alexander Laukenmann, head of Fraport AG’s aviation division. “During the test phase we worked closely with the German Federal Police to optimise its operation and pave the way for its certification. This is part of our ongoing efforts to improve the passenger experience by using the latest technologies to make checkpoints faster and easier to navigate while upholding our high standard of security. A special thank you goes to the whole project team.”
The millimetre-wave technology used in the QPS Walk2000 scanners penetrates clothing while an avatar pinpoints potentially dangerous objects in real time. If an alarm is triggered, security personnel can focus on the specific indicated area instead of having to completely rescan the passenger.
Since taking responsibility for the aviation security checks at Frankfurt Airport, Fraport has invested around €22 million to equip the security checkpoints with advanced CT technology and innovative lane designs.
“The very successful joint testing and evaluation of the walkthrough scanner by the Federal Police and Fraport at Frankfurt Airport are an example of excellent collaboration by all of the involved parties,” said Andreas Hägele, who heads the microwave imaging department at Rohde & Schwarz. “We’re very proud to be contributing to an advanced, innovative and globally new approach for screening passengers at airports.”
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