Pakistan-UAE travel: Installation of e-gates at major airports to improve passenger processing

Traveling from Pakistan will now be much easier as authorities are planning for the installation of smart gates at the South Asian nation’s key airports.

Pakistan Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) is the governing body of Aviation in Pakistan and has floated the tender for the setting up of e-gates at Karachi, Lahore, and Islamabad international airports to enable business entities interested in the project to come up with bids.

The airport authorities of both the Dubai and Abu Dhabi airports have placed e-gates to facilitate passengers. The Pakistan authorities’ initiative would turn traveling into a hassle-free event for the almost two-million-strong expat community in the Emirates if smart gates were to be installed in major Pakistani airports.

CAA said in the bids that: ‘‘The project has been designed as a self-service immigration system for airport installation to reduce cost and enhance passenger satisfaction. It will be located at the gates at arrival and departure where passengers’ identity using the top trending technologies shall be validated. With the increasing flow of passengers and, especially with the recent expansions of airports, it is planned to modernize its border control solution to provide effective Immigration services of passengers at Pakistani airports while improving security processing.”

The air freights that exist within UAE and Pakistan are among the most active avenues. The Gulf Arab country hosts over 1. An estimated 7 million Pakistanis living in the UAE are recorded to be 17 percent of the total population. Pakistanis are the second largest group of foreign workers in the UAE after the Indian workers. More than 230,000 Pakistanis have migrated to the UAE in search of a better livelihood in the year 2023.

Pakistan’s Bureau of Emigration and Overseas Employment (BE&OE) and Overseas Employment Corporation (OEC) data established that 862,625 workers went abroad for employment in 2023, an increase of 4 percent.

According to the Pakistan Civil Aviation Authority, the move has taken the load off manned immigration counters and would set up effective automated immigration with document scanning and personal identification for maintaining the security and integrity of the borders. The services include the supply and fixing of e-Gate systems, system integration, testing, and commissioning which is followed by the operation and maintenance of systems.

The Civil Aviation Authority has inquired of concerning local and international companies to submit bids by August 13, 2024.

The UAE’s major airlines – Emirates, Flydubai, Etihad, and Air Arabia – maneuver to all the top destinations in Pakistan, including Karachi, Lahore, Islamabad, Peshawar, Quetta, Sialkot, Faisalabad and Multan. On July 1, Flydubai included Islamabad and Lahore to its destinations.