Artificial intelligence scanning system
There is to be a reorganisation project at Palma Son Sant Joan Airport that will create the largest security control area at a European airport.
The airport’s director, Tomás Melgar, says that the current security control area will be moved so that it is to the rear of the check-in counters. The two controls that there are at present will be unified in creating a single area that will be the largest in Europe.
There will be 44 scanners and new security filters will have the most modern technology, which will speed up the entire process. Melgar explains that the machines will be equipped with a three-dimensional scanning system, controlled by artificial intelligence and capable of analysing the contents of luggage without the need for security guard examination except in exceptional cases.
It will not be necessary to remove liquids or electronic devices as there will be the capability of, for example, seeing under a laptop’s battery. “It is a significant leap forward.”
The average waiting time at security filters is around four minutes per passenger. Melgar says that the filter is very fast but adds: “It is difficult to improve the passage time, but it will be much more convenient for the passenger and less invasive. If it is also faster, then so much the better.“
There will also be more check-in counters. At present there are 192; sixty more are to be created. As to the existing security control area, the reorganisation that the Aena airports authority is planning will convert this into what Melgar describes as “a traffic and commercial distribution plaza, very wide and open”. Based on the layout of the commercial hall at Barcelona Airport, there will be corridors off this plaza for the different modules and boarding gates.
Work on all this is scheduled to start in November, the aim being that the bulk of the work will be ready for the start of the 2025 summer season.