Málaga airport starts using the Indra biometric system to automate border control

The ABC (Automated Border Control) management system for automated border control that Indra implemented as a temporary joint venture with IECISA at Málaga Airport went into service on Tuesday, yesterday. This solution, in just a few seconds, verifies the passenger's documentation and checks his or her identity by analyzing the passenger's biometric parameters. In this way, long waits and lines can be avoided by also improving security at the same time.

The Spanish Secretary of State for Security, Francisco Martínez, inaugurated the new system, which was developed by the Indra Company in collaboration with the National Police Force. Its startup of operations is part of the Global Border Management and Integration Program that is starting in Spain. The goal of this initiative is to use this type of technology to manage in a comprehensive way all air and sea borders with large amounts of passenger movement from Spain. 

Citizens of the European Union, Iceland, Norway and Liechtenstein (European Economic Area) and Switzerland who have an electronic passport will be able to use the ABC system, in addition to Spanish citizens who have an electronic DNI (national identity card), and who arrive in Málaga from countries outside of the Schengen area.

The solution consists of a terminal where the traveler inserts his or her electronic DNI or Passport. The ABC system verifies the authenticity of the document and checks that it does in fact match the bearer by means of biometric analysis of the person's fingerprints and facial features.

Once this check has been passed, the traveler heads to the exit check gate, which has a sensor that will verify the person's fingerprints again in order to provide access. In this way, the maximum amount of convenience can be provided to the traveler and the workload is reduced for National Police Force agents, who only need to intervene in the event that an anomaly is detected.

The system has been installed at the airport's Terminal T2, which has 3 unattended documentation control devices and one gate with fingerprint biometric identification, and at Terminal T3, which has 4 control devices and 2 gates.

The Secretary of State for Security, Francisco Martínez, emphasized during the presentation of the system that this solution is being put into service "after the success of both pilot projects, which have been operating since 2010 at Adolfo Suárez-Madrid Barajas airport and at El Prat-Barcelona.” The systems installed at both airports were developed and implemented by Indra.

New Generation of Systems

The Consulting and Technology multinational Indra has become in just a few years a leader in the development of automated border management systems. This year, the European Commission has entrusted it with leadership of the European R&D project, ABC4EU (Automated Border Gates for Europe), on which 15 partners from 7 different countries are working.

This initiative's goal is to harmonize the various types of ABC systems that exist in the continent's different countries so that passengers always have the same user experience and facilitate implementation of the system independently of the provider that has developed it. Furthermore, the system will be prepared so that it can verify next-generation digital documents and there will be an analysis of the possibility of citizens from countries not belonging to the European Union also using the system, which would expand its use to a greater number of travelers.

Indra

Indra maintains a solid position in the security sector. The company's systems protect more than 5,000 km (3,100 miles) of border worldwide. It is also a pioneer in secure identification systems, with more than 30 million identity documents and cards issued in a number of countries. It has also deployed emergency management centers in cities including Madrid and Buenos Aires. In the field of Cybersecurity, it operates the i-CSOC center, which provides services to companies and organizations that need it 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year.

Indra, chaired by Javier Monzón, is Spain's number 1 consulting and technology multinational and one of the main multinationals in Europe and Latin America. Innovation and sustainability are the cornerstone of its business, having assigned over €570 million to R&D&I in the last three years, a figure that places it among the top European companies in its sector in terms of investment. With approximate sales of €3,000 M, 61% of its sales revenue is from the international market. It has 42,000 employees and customers in over 138 countries.