Flying out of Pakistan will become smoother as authorities plan to install new smart gates at the South Asian country’s major airports.
Pakistan Civil Aviation Authority (CAA), the country’s regulatory body, has invited companies to bid on installing e-gates at the country’s main airports, Karachi, Lahore, and Islamabad.
Dubai and Abu Dhabi airports have installed e-grates to ensure a seamless travel experience for passengers. Installing smart gates at major Pakistani airports would make travel hassle-free for the nearly 2 million expat-community in the Emirates.
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“The project has been conceived as a self-service immigration system for airport installation to cut costs and improve passenger satisfaction. The system shall be placed at the airports’ arrival and departure gates, which validate passengers’ identity using top-trending technologies. In the context of increasing numbers of passengers and with the recent expansion of airports, it is intended to modernise its border control solution to enable a seamless Immigration process of travellers at Pakistani airports while improving security processing,” CAA said in its bids.
The UAE-Pakistan air corridor is one of the busiest between the two countries. The Gulf Arab country is home to over 1.7 million Pakistani diaspora, accounting for 17 per cent of the UAE’s population. Pakistanis are the second largest foreign workers after Indians in the UAE. In 2023, more than 230,000 Pakistanis moved to the UAE for greener pastures.
In 2023, Pakistan’s Bureau of Emigration and Overseas Employment (BE&OE) and Overseas Employment Corporation (OEC) reported that 862,625 workers went overseas for employment, an increase of 4 per cent.
Pakistan Civil Aviation Authority said the initiative would alleviate the workload on manned immigration counters and establish a standardised automated immigration process that includes document verification and personal authentication for maintaining the security and integrity of the borders. The scope of services includes providing, installing, integrating, testing and commissioning e-Gate systems followed by operation & maintenance.
The Civil Aviation Authority asked interested local and international companies to submit bids by August 13, 2024.
The UAE’s major airlines – Emirates, Flydubai, Etihad and Air Arabia – operate to all the top destinations in Pakistan, including Karachi, Lahore, Islamabad, Peshawar, Quetta, Sialkot, Faisalabad and Multan. On July 1, Flydubai added Islamabad and Lahore to its destinations.