Bundesdruckerei, secunet to Deliver Automated Border Control Systems for German Airports

A consortium led by Bundesdruckerei GmbH has won a pan-European tender by the Procurement Office of the German Federal Ministry of the Interior for automated border control systems at German airports. By the end of 2014, the consortium partners, Bundesdruckerei and secunet Security Networks AG, will initially equip Germany’s busiest airports, i.e. Frankfurt/Main, Munich, Düsseldorf and Hamburg, with 90 so-called eGates. This contract includes design, delivery, commissioning, maintenance and support and is scheduled to begin before the end of the year. In later years, other German airports are to be fitted with eGates, for instance, the new capital city airport BER.


Bundesdruckerei is the technology leader in complex security solutions and border control management.

“The expertise offered by Bundesdruckerei and secunet was the key factor for winning the pan-European tender. Together, we will install the world’s most innovative eGate system in Germany and will also set international standards in doing so,” said Ulrich Hamann, CEO of Bundesdruckerei GmbH.

“Bundesdruckerei and secunet have excellent know-how and high-quality solutions for security technology,” Dr. Rainer Baumgart, CEO of secunet AG, added. “Together, we are not only helping the Federal Police to accelerate border control processes, we are also helping to create greater security at the outer borders of the Schengen Area.”

The new eGate solution will significantly boost the efficiency of border controls while maintaining the same high level of security. For passengers who use an eGate, the control procedure will be reduced to less than 18 seconds. During this time, the passenger’s identity and the authenticity and validity of his/her electronic travel document will be automatically checked. In the new gate systems, reading devices from Bundesdruckerei will check the authenticity of travel documents in a matter of seconds.

In place of the border control officer, a smart camera system will compare the passenger’s face with the passport photo. The secunet biomiddle software is the central interface in the eGate, connecting the aforementioned system components with the border control officer’s user interface and the security infrastructure. The eGates now ordered are the persistent further development of automated border control systems already in use at the airports in Frankfurt (EasyPASS) and Prague (EasyGO). The new eGates and all of their components excel thanks to their intuitive operation. For all users, be it passengers, airports or the Federal Police, these state-of-the-art automated gate systems offer many advantages in terms of security and efficiency.

The new eGates will be supplemented by solutions and products from Bundesdruckerei: an innovative background management system with which all eGates at the airport can be centrally controlled and configured in an efficient manner. Other components include monitoring systems for PC workplaces at the terminals and state-of-the-art document readers. secunet’s Terminal Control Center ensures the security needed for checking the electronic chip data in travel documents. It performs all cryptographic and key management for the connected gates. The entire certificate exchange and authorisation process hence runs fully automatically in the background of the visible border control process.