New passport scanners
cause long lines at PJIA
AIRPORT--Issues linked to the use of the new passport scanners at Princess Juliana International Airport (PJIA) are causing long lines of irritated passengers.
Tourism Commissioner Roy Marlin, who experienced the lengthy wait first-hand over the weekend, has raised serious concerns about how this will affect the island’s image.
With the worldwide economic downturn being a worry for St Maarten’s tourist sector, the commissioner said it was not desirable that passengers go through negative experiences when leaving the island.
It was very clear on Sunday that the newly introduced passport scanners could not handle the workload fast enough. While all passengers were already checked in, a long line of people formed in the Passport Control Area on the second floor waiting to be attended by the two Immigration officers working with the new scanners.
The line extended all the way down the stairs and reached PJIA’s security checkpoint on the ground floor.
Marlin said he hoped the situation would be resolved soon, preferably before the height of the tourist season. He even suggested that the “old-fashioned (manual) way” for Immigration officers to handle passengers should be re-introduced temporarily until whatever problem the new automated system has been encountering can be fixed.
The scanner hold-up could spill over into flight delays, Marlin pointed out, because passengers are already checked in and their baggage loaded on the plane when they are stuck in the passport control line, so the airplane has to wait on them. “This will be very negative for aircraft movement, especially for flights heading to large airports where they have time slots to use the jet-bridges and runways.”
Justice Minister David Dick announced a little over a week ago in a meeting of the Central Committee of Parliament that the passport scanners had been introduced. The minister could not be reached yesterday for a comment, but is expected to look into the matter as soon as possible. With the tourism season just kicking off, PJIA will become increasingly busier in months ahead.
If the immigration system remains as slow as it has been so far, the problem of passengers having to wait in long lines will only get worse, Marlin fears.
The Daily Herald has learned that the data scanned in from the passports has to be sent to Curaçao. Apparently, this has been the reason, or at least one of the reasons, for the delays. The new scanners have been operational for almost two weeks and the Minister’s intention is to link the system to the Interpol database.
The Interpol database is the largest database in the world of persons with criminal records.
