Similar to other European airports, Oslo Airport (OSL) is facing the upcoming introduction of the Entry/Exit System (EES) as an automated IT system for registering third-country nationals. The main purpose of the EES is to strengthen external borders of the Schengen area by registering entry and exit data of third-country nationals when crossing the external borders. This study assessed the best strategy to adopt to this system in the most efficient way.
Project Overview
EES will replace the current system of manual stamping of passports and also adds further steps to the process, as for example the recording of biometric data (fingerprints and captured facial images). The introduction of EES will have impact on passenger handling: Additional questions to be asked, biometric data to be collected and checks against security databases will require more time for handling third-country nationals. Therefore, the introduction will pose a challenge to the finely tuned passport control processes at European airports and further actions as increased staffing or the usage of self-service kiosks are required to ensure the same throughput capacity.
Services Provided
In order to anticipate the resource demand and potential operational challengers, ARC conducted a simulation study to assess several design concepts, operational scenarios and future forecasted peak hour volumes. The simulations compared several general strategies:
- Implementation of kiosks (Two-step approach) – Fulfilling the requirements by assigning e.g. the recording of passport, biometric data and questions to kiosks
- Adding of further passport control booths (One-step approach) – Assigning all new sub-processes to the immigration officer and calculating future staff requirements
- Slot limitation – no expansion of NonSchengen area but ‘flattening’ of peak and re-scheduling of flights
Results and Benefits
By contrasting the various options how new EES requirements could be fulfilled, Oslo Airport got well founded insights how a future situation could look like. The calculated requirements could be contrasted to the boundary conditions of the airport (e.g. available space) and support the decision making, whether to invest in kiosks, more control positions or a reconfiguration of the queuing area.
