The General Directorate of Residency and Foreigners Affairs in Dubai (GDRFA-Dubai) has confirmed that the country’s airports will use a new information system that will drastically decrease passenger-checking time.

With the installation of an advance passenger information system (APIS), airport security will be enhanced while passenger-checking procedures can be reduced to less than 20s.

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The first phase of APIS will start with the first and business-class passengers of Emirates Airline, which will later be extended to economy-class passengers.

"The UAE has always supported integration as a two-way process."

By mid-2015, GDRFA-Dubai will also launch the APIS for cruise tourists.

Zawya quoted major General Obaid Mohair bin Suroor, deputy director general of GDRFA-Dubai as saying that Dubai airports were expected to receive close to 100 million passengers by 2020 and therefore the APIS would be crucial to handle the increase in passenger numbers.

A statement also revealed that at a later stage, the government will also circulate guidelines to all the airlines to benefit from the APIS.

The UAE’s General Civil Aviation Authority (GCAA) had also opened an advance passenger information (API) centre in Abu Dhabi earlier this year to maintain the security of the country’s borders by accessing and assessing information of arriving, departing and transiting passengers by air, sea and land ports.

The API centre is said to be using the state-of-art technology tools and latest technical regulations.

Minister of economy and chairman of General Civil Aviation Authority (GCAA) Sultan bin Saeed Al Mansoori was quoted by Emirates 24 7 as saying: "The UAE has always supported integration as a two-way process and the API centre is a UAE project which works closely with all airports and immigration authorities, which reflects the excellent cooperation between all entities."