Spanish airport operator AENA is floating a massive tender to upgrade the biometric boarding eGates at its airport. AENA is planning to tender 998,500 euros (approximately US$1.14 million) plus taxes worth of upgrades to its Biopass system over two lots.
The two lots relate to Biopass biometric eGates from the two manufacturers supplying AENA – Gunnebo and dormakaba. The contract to upgrade the Gunnebo gates is worth €383,500 ($436,000) and the contract for the dormakaba gates is worth €615,000 ($699,000).
Spain’s airport authority launched biometric eGates at Menorca Airport in 2019 under a pilot project with partners including Atos and Idemia. The pilot expanded to Adolfo Suárez Madrid-Barajas and Josep Tarradellas Barcelona-El Prat Airports before a temporary suspension in 2022 to review data protection procedures and compliance.
The Spanish Data Protection Agency (AEPD) then fined AENA 10 million euros (US$11.4 million) in 2025 on grounds that its Data Protection Impact Assessment (DPIA) was incomplete and the system’s centralized data storage is incompatible with GDPR.
The tender documents for the two-year contracts specify that they include updating the face biometric door control software, integrating the doors with the Biopass system, adapting the equipment to meet relevant regulations and certification of the equipment under the country’s national security scheme (ENS/CPSTIC) and Systems Integration Center (CIS) schemes. Review, fine-tuning and maintenance are also included. Functional tests, integration validation and complete documentation are also required.
The Gunnebo biometric gates are used at Adolfo Suárez Madrid-Barajas and Josep Tarradellas Barcelona-El Prat Airports, and the dormakaba gates are used at Palma de Mallorca, Ibiza, Menorca, Gran Canaria, and Tenerife North Airports. Both are used at AENA’s Information and Communications Center.
