THE Bureau of Immigration yesterday said the electronic gates deployed at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport and other international airports are set for an upgrade to enable them to do label-free processing.
Immigration Commissioner Norman Tansingco said they are currently in the process of integrating the data of airlines to connect with the e-gates.
He said the upgrade work is needed since some passengers have complained that they are unable to use the e-gates when their flight record is not yet integrated into the system.
As a result, Tansingco said passengers have to transfer to regular counters to be processed manually.
“As a result of the upgrade, travelers can expect the removal of the scanning of boarding passes when using the e-gates,” Tansingco said, adding the upgrade will further lessen the processing time for arriving passengers.
He said the e-gates are also being reconfigured to be label-free.
“Instead of printing a sticker to be attached to the passport, passengers will receive an email acknowledging their arrival. This is the best practice that we are emulating from other countries,” he added.
Tansingco also said the agency is procuring more e-gates this year to replace 25 percent of their manual operations in international airports.
There are only 21 e-gates distributed at arrival areas in major international airports in the country, the majority of which are deployed at NAIA.
The agency expects to install 43 E-gates by 2026.
The project, according to Tansingco will cost P1.9 billion, but he stressed it is necessary to enable the country’s airports to be at par with their international counterparts.
