Airport automated security screening market was pegged at around US$ 2 billion in 2016, and is expected to register growth at around 5% CAGR through the forecast period (2017–2025). Increasing requirement to provide mechanized assessment of passengers and luggage, with minimal human errors and reduce time, efforts and expenses in the process is among the primary factors that will fuel growth of the airport automated security screening market.

Increasing concerns regarding terrorist activities and smuggling is anticipated to drive the technology demands

Requirement to prevent illegal goods trafficking, airplane hijacking and planting explosives in aircraft is the major factor that will drive the demands for these systems. Moreover, according to International Air Transport Association (IATA), the global demand for air travel is projected to register growths at over 3.7% CAGR, accounting for 7.2 billion passengers to travel in 2035. Increasing demands for air travel will in turn lead to increased demands for reducing queue times and efficient security platforms for good consumer experiences. Increasing requirement of automated screening processes to meet these increasing demands will provide considerable growth prospects for airport automated security screening market.

Airport Automated Security Market Taxonomy

On the basis of end use, the global airport automated screening market is classified into:

Access control

Passenger screening

Baggage screening

Requirement to enhance passenger safety and misuse of access through contractor and staff ID badges is expected to drive the demands for biometric technology

In June 2016, U.S. Customs and Border Protection deployed biometric based facial recognition exit systems at Washington Dulles International Airport. Moreover, international demands for installation of biometric systems have registered significant surge over the past few years. Large potential of biometric technologies such as iris, retina, face, and fingerprint recognition, and advent of palm vein detection to scan the blood vein patterns through linking biometric information to identification will lead to considerable reduction in waiting times and human errors in the procedures. In conjunction with this, enhancement in safety protocols, cost efficiency and reliability of biometric systems will provide substantial growth prospects for the global airport automated security screening market during the forecast period.

Passenger verification systems are projected to continue its dominance over the forecast period, followed by baggage and access control. Introduction of these biometric systems and compliance with other regulatory standards of the airports for individual verification is among the major factors driving demand for passenger screening. These include walk-through screening systems, liquid explosive detection systems, shoe metal detectors, and other human recognition systems.

Asia Pacific accounted for the largest industry share in 2016, and is expected to continue its dominance over the forecast period. Growth can be largely attributed to the increasing infrastructure investments in the region that includes development of new as well as upgrade of the existing airport infrastructure. Some of these include Pudong International Airport Expansion (China), Selatar (Singapore), and Taiwan Taoyuan International (Taiwan).

Developed economies in U.S. and Europe are expected to witnessed stable growth prospects, however will find substantial demands in upgradation and maintenance of the old systems over the forecast period. Moreover, high initial capital requirement for the infrastructure is still expected to hinder the financially weak economies.

Key airport automated security screening market players include CEIA, Nuctech, SDI, Smiths Detection, Autoclear, American Science & Engineering, Analogic, Rapiscan Systems, Morpho Detection (Safran), L-3 communications security and detection systems, and Optosecurity. Quality, innovation, cost efficiency, aftermarket of the product offerings are the significant factors that will help the participants gain better sales and profit margins.