Smartgate faults, especially at SYD

[RooFlyer]

A report in the Oz on-line today:

Faulty smartgates keep international arrivals waiting at Australia’s biggest gateway

Machines intended to streamline the processing of international arrivals into Sydney Airport are out of order on an average of 88 times a month, the worst rate of failure in the country.

Data provided by Australian Border Force revealed the extent of problems with the 22 smartgates and 40 kiosks which are meant to speed up the process for eligible international arrivals.

A Sydney Airport spokeswoman said the current system was “clearly not providing the best customer experience” as international passenger volumes continued to grow.

Although there were plans to upgrade the technology, the rollout of new smartgates was not scheduled for completion in Sydney until July, 2024.

The ABF was unable to say what the average wait time was for overseas travellers arriving into Sydney but did acknowledge that faults and malfunctions were commensurate with the age of the smartgates, first introduced in 2009.

The ABF spokeswoman said with regard to arrivals, new third-generation smartgates were already in place at Brisbane and Perth International Airports.

Melbourne was next on the to-do list with new smartgates set to be in place by the end of November, while Sydney would have to wait until July 2024 for its third-gen gates.

 

[SYD]

Can’t say I’ve had an issue and don’t recall others here mentioning it?

 

[jboy90]

Had plenty of issues earlier this year on arrival. Same machine not fixed after 2 arrivals, months apart (or it kept breaking).

Departure gates were okay, though I did get moved to manual review after being told I had 'used the machine too fast'......

 

[drron]

I think the last time I got through Immigration at SYD without a problem either coming or going was pre Smart Gate.

 

[pjm99au]

I haven’t noticed troubles with the gates but a significant portion of the arrivals kiosks seem to always out of order

 

[SYD]

I haven’t noticed troubles with the gates but a significant portion of the arrivals kiosks seem to always out of order

That’s a part that really needs to be improved. Something like YVR or some of the NZ ports have a more sensible quick line up for a selection of kiosks and move to gate entry.

 

[Mwenenzi]

I haven’t noticed troubles with the gates but a significant portion of the arrivals kiosks seem to always out of order

That’s a part that really needs to be improved. Something like YVR or some of the NZ ports have a more sensible quick line up for a selection of kiosks and move to gate entry.

The NZ smart gates are better as all one action in one machine: passport in reader ---> gate opens--> look at the camera---> gate opens. [CHC]
The AU system of a kiosk to get a ticket, walk X metres, to then put that ticket into machine (smart gate) to me seems like a system from the 1990's.

Coming into MEL (evenings) I have never had an issue. Except into MEL a few weeks ago. For the first time ever (for me) kiosks were failing and people directed the manual processing. At that time also had an EK flight arrive. Some of those pax were trying to use kiosk but were ineligible and/or had children. Was a mess.

 

[tdimdad]

The AU system of a kiosk to get a ticket, walk X metres, to then put that ticket into machine (smart gate) to me seems like a system from the 1990's.

That ticket is such an anomaly. Whoever dreamt up that idea should have had another double shot in the morning.
The pre-screening kiosk is OK as a concept but it should be directly integrated to the egates so that you only need your passport & mugshot to go through.

Even better would be to follow the lead from smarter countries and have the arrival declaration prefilled online so that you can walk straight to the egates (and those who can't prefill can have a few kiosks available on arrival).

 

[tdimdad]

The failure rates seem to be pretty inconsistent. Why would that be?
Taking a raw count of [failures / number of machines] makes MEL look like the most reliable place. If the BNE + PER gates have been recently upgraded, it looks like their reliability is actually below the older generation gates in MEL.

SYD arrivals is in a league of its own. Again, deserves the question 'how come?'.

 

[RooFlyer]

That ticket is such an anomaly. Whoever dreamt up that idea should have had another double shot in the morning.
The pre-screening kiosk is OK as a concept but it should be directly integrated to the egates so that you only need your passport & mugshot to go through.

I arrived Int’l into Brisbane a week or so ago and at the SmartGate, I got a supermarket receipt type bit of thermal paper with the photograph it took of me on it and a bunch of other details. I guess these are the next generation ones. Just the same, or very similar, as in certain USA airports about seven years ago.

 

[SYD]

SYD arrivals is in a league of its own. Again, deserves the question 'how come?'.

I suspect there’s more lurking in those numbers and what actually defines a failure? But yeah, they are the older tech. The funny thing, the article shows what appears to be new kiosks as “broken” but they’re probably just being set up as new….

 

[Warragul]

The NZ smart gates are better as all one action in one machine: passport in reader ---> gate opens--> look at the camera---> gate opens. [CHC]
The AU system of a kiosk to get a ticket, walk X metres, to then put that ticket into machine (smart gate) to me seems like a system from the 1990's.

Coming into MEL (evenings) I have never had an issue. Except into MEL a few weeks ago. For the first time ever (for me) kiosks were failing and people directed the manual processing. At that time also had an EK flight arrive. Some of those pax were trying to use kiosk but were ineligible and/or had children. Was a mess.

The current inbound Smartgate system design dates back to early 2000's, so yes its just about from the 1990's. The initial implementation was delayed a very long time (over a year) till 2007 due to various issues that beset projects that introduce new technology and business process.

If it was lots of people off the one flight failing at the kiosk, sounds like an issue with the APP systems/data for that flight. Smartgate inbound relies on APP data being present and the kiosk does a check of this to 'filter' out those where APP data can't be found. Outbound Smartgate also does this check, but has a fallback option to allow processing. The real reason APP compliance rates were upped from 95+% to 100% a few years ago.