Atos to Upgrade AENA Airports with Biometric Tech

AENA is looking to make its airport operations more efficient with the help of Atos. The two companies have signed a three-year contract worth just under €12 million (€11.8 million, to be precise), with an option to extend for another two years if everything goes well.

AENA currently operates 46 airports and 2 heliports in Spain, as well as a smaller collection of airports in Mexico, Colombia, and Jamaica (12, two, and two airports, respectively). At the moment, the company manages everything with custom-built systems for its enterprise, but it is now looking to upgrade with new technologies that will make it easier to keep tabs on the high volume of passengers that pass through the company’s airports.  

To that end, Atos will be introducing a number of new features, including biometric recognition systems for airport access control and passenger boarding. Other highlights include data analytics and improved video, AI, and IoT capabilities.

Atos will also be tasked with the management of AENA’s existing system. Roughly 25 percent of the resources in the contract have been allotted to the maintenance of that system, while the remaining 75 percent will be dedicated to the development of new applications.

The two companies did not disclose specifics, though it is worth noting that Atos is a longtime provider of border security. The company’s CENTINELA face and object recognition platform has already been deployed at Spanish border crossings, and it has previously partnered with Safran and Accenture to make the Schengen visa process more efficient.   

More recently, Atos revealed that it will be a core part of the security team during the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, where it will be managing the face-based Advanced Access Control System. The system will use facial recognition to identify staff, athletes, and volunteers, and represents a collaboration between Atos, Panasonic, and NEC.

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October 8, 2019 – by Eric Weiss