Keflavik is the main international airport for Iceland and features modern passenger and commercial facilities as well as extensive aircraft operation areas. Operating 24 hours a day, 7 days a week and servicing 1.8 million passengers per year, Keflavik Airport required a highly secure and reliable solution that could be customised to meet their specific environment.

"As the only airport-tailored access control system, the CEM AC2000 solution was ideal for Keflavik International Airport," comments Einar Gudlaugsson, product development manager of Securitas HF "Working in consultation with CEM we designed a highly secure and flexible access control system to meet all of the requests of Keflavik Airport. The advanced system design incorporates dual redundant servers, integrated CCTV, elevator control and door level intelligence using the CEM xProx 200 MiFare smart card range of readers," Gudlaugsson continues.

The xProx 200 MiFare range will control over 220 airside and landside doors at the airport. To utilise existing cabling the client opted to use a combination of InfoProx serial card readers and EtherProx IP card readers. These xProx 200 readers support MiFare smart cards and come equipped with an LCD display, keypad and internal database for card validation at the door - ensuring the highest level of system stability even if offline from the host controller.

"With our ability to customise both the system hardware and software, our solutions have added flexibility to the design of the security system at Keflavik Airport," comments Andrew Fulton, business development director of Tyco Fire & Security's CEM products "To help operations at the airport run more efficiently we will develop a "Pass Request" web interface for airport contractors to apply online for temporary passes as well as make a number of customisations to the xProx 200 card reader firmware to provide client-specific door modes"

These customised door modes include a "Panic Mode" for emergency situations and a "Schengen Mode" which will help the airport manage the segregation of passengers according to their country status in the European Schengen Federation. This is an agreement among European states which allows for the abolition of systematic border controls between the participating countries, such as Iceland. Airline staff at Keflavik Airport will use the xProx 200 card reader remotely or via card swipe to select the Schengen Mode, subsequently interlocking groups of doors to route passengers from non-Schengen countries to customs for passenger identity checks and border controls. In contrast, passengers from common Schengen federation countries can progress directly through a more streamlined channel without having to go through border controls.

With future expansion plans and passenger traffic at Keflavik Airport expected to reach 3.2 million by 2015, the flexible AC2000 access control system can easily grow to meet ongoing security requirements at Keflavik International Airport.