Airport staff passes to be linked to facial technology, vehicle number plates, and FASTags

A multi-stakeholder meeting on airport security held this week discussed ways to mitigate “insider threat” by integrating entry passes issued to airport, airline, and ground-handling staff with facial technology, and their vehicle’s high security number plate and radio frequency identification-enabled FASTag used for collecting toll tax

Such a move would enable “faster entry into the airport and quicker processing at security checkpoints, reducing queues and wait times. Digitised standard operating procedures (SOPs) will also lead to smarter and quicker responses to any security concerns,” a press statement issued by the Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) on Saturday (June 28, 2025) said.

Such an integration of airport entry passes (AEPs) used by security, airport, airline and ground handling staff, among others, for accessing airports will help in curbing “insider threat”, Inspector General of CISF (Airport Sector), Vijay Prakash, told The Hindu.

This was required as employees left their vehicles in parking area for long hours, allowing scope for misuse by miscreants who were not AEP holders or bona fide staff, the official said.

There were deliberations on the integration of Artificial Intelligence in data analysis for gaining insights and anticipating security risks before they occurred, the press statement added.

These issues were discussed at a workshop held by the CISF on Friday, attended by its senior officials, security chiefs from 69 airports, and representatives of the Ministry of Civil Aviation, Directorate General of Civil Aviation, Bureau of Civil Aviation Security (BCAS), and the Airports Authority of India. Other security agencies that were present included the Delhi Police, the Bureau of Immigration, the Special Protection Group, and the National Security Guard. There were also representatives from the Delhi International Airport Limited, and airlines, including Air India Express and IndiGo.

There was also a suggestion to ensure a zoning system for AEP holders, so that if someone was permitted access to only certain part of airports, including the arrival hall, they could be restricted from going beyond that area with the help of technology along the lines of RFID (radio frequency identification), which could set off an alarm.

BCAS, the aviation security watchdog, issues AEPs for aviation personnel who need to access the airport, as well as salespersons at retail outlets and restaurants inside airports.