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'SmartGate'

Sydney Airport in World First

Customs is planning to pilot an automated processing system for Qantas aircrew at Sydney Kingsford Smith Airport later in the year.

In a world first, Customs will be using photo-matching technology to verify that the passport photo matches a live image of the person presenting the document.

The pilot automated system 'SmartGate' will work as follows:

Crew will place their passport on a passport reader and look at a camera. A light will indicate when identity and immigration checks have been successfully completed and that they can proceed to the green/red channel where they must make any relevant declarations. This should take less than 10 seconds.

If they are not automatically processed, they may try again, or proceed to the Customs booth where a Customs officer will process them manually.

This is the first part of a process to streamline Customs processing of aircrew, while maintaining high security standards.

If the photo-matching technology pilot is successful, Customs will consider a wider deployment for all Australian passport holders as a means of catering for the increasing customer numbers expected over the next five to 10 years.

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