Passenger Checking Process At Dubai Airport To Soon Last Less Than 20 Seconds

New information systems set to be installed in Dubai’s airports are expected to drastically reduce the time required for passenger-checking, it was revealed on Sunday.

The General Directorate of Residency and Foreigners Affairs in Dubai (GDRFA-Dubai) confirmed that it is soon planning to launch an Advance Passenger Information System (APIS) in the emirate.

The APIS aims to raise the security at airports and reduce the time of passenger-checking procedures to less than 20 seconds, a statement said.

The first phase will start with the first and business class passengers of Emirates Airline. It will then be expanded to economy class passengers.

At a later stage, the government will circulate guidelines to all the airlines to benefit from the APIS, it added.

GDRFA-Dubai will be also be launching the APIS for cruise tourists by mid-2015.

Major General Obaid Mohair bin Suroor, deputy director general of GDRFA-Dubai, said that with Dubai airports projected to receive over 100 million passengers by 2020, the move will benefit travellers.

Earlier this year, the UAE’s General Civil Aviation Authority (GCAA) opened its Advance Passenger Information Center in Abu Dhabi, aimed at maintaining the security of the country’s borders by accessing and assessing information of arriving, departing and transiting passengers by air, sea and land ports.

The center is using state-of-art technology tools and latest technical regulations, the statement said.

The UAE’s – and specifically Dubai’s – aviation sector is booming.

Dubai International Airport became the world’s busiest after welcoming around 70.4 million international passengers in 2014, up 6.1 per cent from the 66.4 million in 2013.

With airlines expanding their networks, the city has direct passenger flight connections to 149 cities with populations of over one million people, creating potential export markets of over 916 million people, or 13 per cent of the world’s population, GDRFA-Dubai said.

The number of aircraft registered in the UAE reached 762 in 2014, and UAE airlines have up to 604 aircraft on order until 2030, the UAE’s Minister of Economy and Chairman of GCAA Sultan bin Saeed Al Mansoori has confirmed.

Average daily aircraft movements reached 2250 last year, up six times compared to the number that the UAE had when the airspace was created, Al Mansoori added.

For 2030, the GCAA anticipates over 5100 daily aircraft movements, making the UAE one of the busiest airspaces in the world.