Frankfurt is the world’s first airport to regularly employ walk-through scanners for passenger security checks. Following a roughly one-year test phase at Concourse A in Terminal 1, the German Federal Police have authorized the full-scale use of the Rohde & Schwarz QPS Walk2000 air travel security system. The QPS Walk2000 provides significantly greater comfort and convenience at security checks: instead of having to freeze in an awkward posture for scanning, travelers can simply walk through the scanner at a normal speed.
About 18,000 departing passengers commute through this checkpoint daily. Going forward, the outlook is to extend the use of this technology to additional security check lanes in Terminal 1 and also deploy it in the new Terminal 3.
“We’re the world’s first airport to set a new standard of passenger security with this 360° walk-through scanner,” says Alexander Laukenmann, head of Fraport AG’s aviation division. “During the test phase we worked closely with the German Federal Police to optimize its operation and pave the way for its certification. This is part of our ongoing efforts to improve the passenger experience by using the latest technologies to make checkpoints faster and easier to navigate while upholding our high standard of security. A special thank you goes to the whole project team.”
Andreas Haegele, Vice President Microwave Imaging at Rohde & Schwarz, stated: “The very successful joint testing and evaluation of the walk-through scanner by the Federal Police and Fraport at Frankfurt Airport are an example of excellent collaboration by all of the involved parties. We’re very proud to be contributing to an advanced, innovative and globally new approach for screening passengers at airports.”
The millimeter-wave technology used in the QPS Walk2000 scanners also penetrates clothing while an avatar pinpoints potentially dangerous objects in real time. If an alarm is triggered, security personnel can focus on the specific indicated area instead of having to completely rescan the passenger.
Since taking responsibility for the aviation security checks at Frankfurt Airport, Fraport has invested around 22 million euros to equip the security checkpoints with advanced CT techology and innovative lane designs.
Fraport’s responsibility for managing the security checks: Since January 1, 2023, Fraport has been responsible for of organizing, managing, and operating the roughly 160 security lanes at Frankfurt Airport. The German Federal Police continues to be responsible, among other things, for defining general requirements relevant to aviation security, providing the required legal and technical supervision, ensuring overall aviation security, providing armed protection for checkpoints, approving new inspection equipment, and certifying and recertifying airport security screeners.
