Singapore Airport Tests Immigration Kiosks

[george]

Singapore Airport Tests Immigration Kiosks

SINGAPORE: -- Singapore's Changi Airport has introduced immigration kiosks that read fingerprints and facial features and double as automated check-in counters, in a bid to cut flight check-in times.

The project, known as Fully Automated Seamless Travel or FAST, cuts the time needed for passengers to register for flights and check passports on arrival to two minutes from 15 minutes or longer, the Civil Aviation Authority of Singapore (CAAS) said on Thursday.

The system, which began trials this month at Changi, Asia's sixth-busiest, requires users to lodge facial details and thumb prints as biometric data on an identification card the size of a credit card.

Passengers insert a card into a kiosk and then look into a camera and press their thumb onto a plate to check their details.

FAST so far caters only for 9,000 of Singapore Airlines' most frequent travelers -- if they do not check in luggage and are flying to a nearby country that does not require a visa for Singaporeans, such as Thailand, Indonesia, Hong Kong, the Philippines and Malaysia.

CAAS spokesman Albert Tjoeng said the system could help to cut airport costs and ease the frustration of air travelers in the wake of tighter security arrangements at airports worldwide.

Around 30 million passengers a year pass through Singapore -- a Southeast Asian hub and stopover on the "kangaroo" route between Europe and Australia.

But the airport, already one of the fastest in the world at processing passengers, faces stern competition from regional rivals in Hong Kong, Bangkok and Kuala Lumpur.

The spokesman for CAAS, which operates the airport, said security would not be compromised and that the system was in line with guidelines by the International Civil Aviation Organization. He said FAST could be sold to other airports if the trial was successful.

Singapore plans to start issuing passports with biometric measures late next year to meet stricter US border security rules after the September 11 attacks in the United States.

The city-state already boasts Southeast Asia's most advanced security apparatus, but sees itself as a prime target after it foiled planned attacks by Jemaah Islamiah in 2001.

Jemaah Islamiah is a Southeast Asian militant group that government agencies say has close links with Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda network.

--Reuters 2004-11-25

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