A new staff security system

a powerful new security system called Restricted Area Identification Card (RAIC) became fully operational at 29 Canadian airports. Biometric security cards issued to 100,000 employees are said to be the first in the world to contain two biometrics references ? fingerprint and iris ? and also deployed on a national scale. The Winnipeg Airport Authority, with about 5,000 card holders, was one of the first to be RAIC-compliant. The new cards, says Mike O’Gorman, the airport’s Vice President of Operations, “proves that the person who has the card is the person who should have the card. And from the airport’s point of view, it offers better customer service. We want the ability for the staff to move back and forth between restricted areas easily and with a high level of security.” With the Restricted Access Pass (RAP), which RAIC replaced, employees occasionally found themselves in line-ups up at doors, with guards checking cards against written lists of authorized persons. Moreover, RAP has two cards, on that employees presented to the guards, and the second, which they swiped; the two were on different access systems. With RAIC, and its single access system, says Mr. O’Gorman: “The same way you can grant access, you can deny access just as fast.”