At the 9th ACI EUROPE & ACI Asia-Pacific Airport Exchange, Morpho Detection announced a new contract with Fraport AG, for the implementation of 45 state-of-the art Itemiser DX explosives trace detectors – lightweight, portable desktop systems that can detect traces of explosives on skin, clothing, carried items, bags, vehicles and other surfaces. Morpho has shipped more than 5,000 Itemiser DX explosives trace detectors worldwide.
Just as the development of technology doesn’t stop progressing, threats to airport security continue to evolve, presenting fresh challenges for the industry. The way that air travel is changing – with less frequent movements carrying more passengers, creating growing peaks and bottlenecks at the checkpoints – means that airports must be prepared to adapt, while the limited footprint available for security processes requires an ever better use of existing facilities’ potential. Factor in the constant financial restrictions on gateways, intensifying governmental regulations and, of course, the continued heightening of passengers’ expectations as services standards grow, and airports face a formidable set of obstacles in delivering an exceptional security experience.
Cyril Dujardin is CEO of Morpho Detection, a leading supplier of explosives, narcotics and chemical detection systems. “Our vision is to address our customers’ requirements as clearly as possible, with advanced solutions that meet current and future needs. We have developed technology around X-ray Diffraction that will allow airports to screen liquids in the bags at checkpoints without the need to take them out. We focus on airport requirements, on passenger requirements and of course on future-proof designs.”
The development of the new XDI technology to which Dujardin refers can be used for liquid explosives, but future development could see it also being used to detect solid explosives if and when airports are required to screen solid explosives automatically at the checkpoint.
At the 9th ACI EUROPE & ACI Asia-Pacific Airport Exchange, Morpho Detection announced a new contract with Fraport AG, for the implementation of 45 state-of-the art Itemiser DX explosives trace detectors (ETDs), being deployed at Frankfurt Airport this year as a result of new EU legislation for explosives screening of personnel, materials and concessions entering secure areas of airports. Morpho Detection has also signed with Deutsche Lufthansa AG for the delivery of 17 desktop Itemiser DX ETDs.
Leveraging data
Oren Sapir, President & CEO, ICTS Europe: “The association of security companies who experience the daily operations in planning of future layouts could be, in my view, a critical contribution to the success of any new design.”
In this interconnected age, airports have more knowledge of their customers than ever before, and this, explained Oren Sapir, President & CEO, ICTS Europe, could be the key to airports’ ability to adapt to new threats, while delivering an increasingly more service-minded operation.
“The notion of the trusted passenger can contribute a lot in this sense,” Sapir said. “The criteria for the selection of such passengers should be a combination of factors, which should be in a kind of black box, and can even vary in times. Those passengers who can go through a lighter check would go faster through the gates, improving throughput, and as a result customer satisfaction is expected to increase, while a more concentrated and focused team of agents will conduct the processing of non-trusted passenger.” ICTS delivers tools for airports that allow the real time collection of data in a checkpoint environment – factors such as waiting time, the number of passengers in line, security human resources allocated and customer service level.
“The use of data mining accompanied by applied algorithms, and pre-checks of passengers are a key element in that domain,” affirmed Sapir. “Innovative detection technologies, which will be able to screen bags without the need to empty various items, are also critical.”
“For me the ideal experience is no security,” furthered Dujardin. “Or, at least the feeling that there is no security – that everything is as much as possible automated and seamless for the passenger.”
Morpho Detection is working with stakeholders in the security process to create an experience that is as streamlined, seamless and positive as possible for the passenger.
