ELECTRONIC gates deployed at the country’s international airports will be upgraded to better serve travelers, the Bureau of Immigration said Thursday. 

Immigration Commissioner Norman Tansingco said that they are currently in the process of integrating the data of airlines to connect with the e-gates.

This came after the BI received reports that some passengers were unable to use the e-gates since their flight record was not yet integrated into the system. 

As a result, passengers have to transfer to regular counters to be processed manually. 

With the upgrade, arriving passengers won’t need to scan their boarding passes in order to use the e-gates, thus cutting down on processing time.

“Our e-gates are also being reconfigured to be label-free,” Tansingco said. 

“Instead of printing a sticker to be attached to the passport, passengers will receive an email acknowledging their arrival. This is the best practice that we are emulating from other countries,” he added. 

The BI has already initiated the procurement of more e-gates to replace 25% of their manual operations in major international airports.