Maxine Most
May 13, 20141 min
Earlier this month, Atlanta Hartsfield-Jackson and Chicago O’Hare — two of the world’s busiest airports — announced the introduction of biometric Automated Passport Control (APC) kiosks.
APC kiosks offer a cost effective and rapidly deployable means of reducing congestion at international arrivals. These announcements reflect a decisive global trend towards expediting international airport passengers through rapid adoption of automated border control technology.
Acuity’s latest research “The Global Automated Border Control Industry Report: Airport eGates and Kiosks” projects North American and European airports will drive a global APC Kiosk market of nearly 8,000 units and more than $550 million in revenues by 2018, reflecting a 22% CAGR over five years.
Currently, less than 400 APC kiosks have been deployed in 13 airports in the US and Canada, APC kiosk numbers will grow rapidly as they migrate globally to Europe, Asia, and the Middle East. Though North America currently represents 100% of the APC Kiosk market, by 2018 Europe will dominate with 42% market share, while Asia at 24.4% will exceed North America at 16.6%.
APC kiosks enable international travellers to rapidly clear passport control by entering their own immigration information. Automating this process via self-service kiosks decreases international arrival wait times by as much as 80% for kiosks users and 50% for all passengers.
The first generation of APC kiosks did not include biometrics and were available only to US and Canadian passport holders. Biometric APC kiosks extend this service to international travelers from 38 visa-waiver countries including Australia, Japan,Germany and the United Kingdom.
For detailed APC kiosk market forecasts, check out “The Automated Border Control Industry Report: Airport eGates and Kiosks” at www.acuity-mi.com/ABCair_Report.php .