Yesterday, 1 March, Francisco Sá Carneiro Airport opened a new security area. The opening of this new area is connected to the goal of increasing Porto Airport’s capacity in serving passengers in the security control area.

 “An airport’s capacity is the result of a combination of the individual capacity of all its subsystems: check-in, security, baggage, up to the runway or even to navigation or air capacity, for example” explains Thierry Ligonnière, Chief Operating Officer and Director of ANA Aeroportos de Portugal. “In the case of Porto, since 2017, investments were announced that enable us to process more passengers in the check-in and security area, seeking to increase this airport’s capacity, in order to deal with what we expect the evolution of demand to be.”, he adds.

With the inauguration of this new area, Porto Airport’s security control area now has new screening systems, identical to those which had recently been implemented in Lisbon and Faro. In total, 21 new screening lines will be implemented in the three airports. In Porto, four new lines, expected to serve 1,200 passengers/hour, will be inaugurated today, adding this capacity to the existing machine. Thus, the new total capacity of this airport subsystem will benefit from an overall capacity increase of about 60%.

Faro Airport was a precursor in the implementation of this type of equipment, operating since 16 January, having processed 100,000 passengers since then. For Faro, this equipment represents the ability to process an additional 1,200 passengers/hour.

In Lisbon the implementation of this equipment, which started in January, is of particular importance because it enables greater agility and processing capacity in an airport with intensive use, with an immediate, albeit incremental, improvement of capacity, without requiring other expansion projects. Before the beginning of the summer, Humberto Delgado Airport will feature 13 screening lines (nine in Terminal 1 and four in Terminal 2)

These new systems represent the state of the art in Europe for this type of technology, among whose main features are:

  • They are pioneers in the integration of new X-ray equipment (with European certification), which enable electronic devices to remain inside the luggage;
  • The screening of liquids is possible, but these continue to have to be taken outside the luggage and have a specific acceptance procedure for screening;
  • They enable automatic routing, separation and return of the trays where all of the passengers’ luggage and belongings are placed;
  • They have a length of about 18 to 21 metres and each automatic line weighs around 6 metric tons (with the X-ray);
  • Each line enables three passengers to simultaneously place their luggage and belongings in the trays;
  • They enable remote screening, in which the X-ray operator can analyse the images from within a remote room of the airport, away from the noise and pressure;
  • They have a larger area between the screening lines, in order to enable effective and efficient implementation of the security procedures in a way that is comfortable for the passenger;
  • They enable automatic separation of baggage requiring greater detail in their analysis from those that can be immediately delivered to the passengers;
  • They have a workstation at the end of the process where the operators can re-examine the baggage to make sure that they do not contain prohibited articles;
  • They have new and larger support tables at the end, in order for the passengers to be able to collect their belongings and comfortably continue their travel.