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Air Seychelles invests in SALTO access control system

Air Seychelles has chosen a SALTO electronic access control system to provide advanced security management.  The airport awarded the contract to approved SALTO Independent Service Centre, Vidsec Ltd.

The national airline of the Republic of Seychelles, Air Seychelles main base is Seychelles International Airport, Mahé, from where it operates a fleet of 4 Boeing 767s, 2 Short 360 and 3 Twin Otters on inter-island services and international flights to 9 destinations on three continents.  The airport required a highly secure and reliable solution that could be customised to meet their specific environment.

"Following new security legislation coming into force for airports across the region, where compliance was necessary to maintain their operating licence, Air Seychelles knew that improved management of staff working at the airport and passengers' using it was crucial," comments John Crummock, Sales Director of Vidsec Ltd.

"The key to this would be a modern access control system but initially the airline was wary of electronic access control equipment, doubting it could provide the reliability of sustained operations in a tropical, ocean based environment with 85% humidity.

"Confident of our technology we supplied a single lock on free trial for an extended period and it performed flawlessly, convincing the airport that SALTO equipment was the way ahead.

"Subsequently we then began working in consultation with Air Seychelles, designing a highly secure and flexible access control system to meet all their requirements.  The advanced electronic system replaced a mix of padlocked outer security doors and Euro cylinders and mortise locks on inner doors instantly eliminating all the problems the airport were having with key control and unauthorised access," Crummock continues.

As an access control system tailored for airport use, the SALTO Comfort and XS4 solutions are ideal.  The contactless Comfort Mifare range in stainless steel is now used to control access to the engineering stores where complete jet and turbo-prop engines, accessories, high value spares and specialist tools are kept.

XS4 Mifare operated locks meanwhile have been installed on bonded stores within the catering department and also in the main terminal building, controlling access to the main ticketing/check-in area as well as to a number of upper level administration offices.

Doors in both the engineering and bonded stores are on-line with access controlled via wall mounted readers using SALTO Virtual Network technology.

This system allows the locks to read, receive and write information via the Mifare operating  cards.  Since most access related information is kept encrypted on the cards, the wall readers are able to update and receive information from the cards at any time.  This means not only is the system easy to use, but its clever functionality also provides 90% of the benefits of a fully on line access control system at the cost of a stand alone system.

The build up of 'on-card' audit trails through normal use gives the airline complete control over access and enabling them to track the movement of staff into and out of these highly restricted areas.  This enables a complete access profile of each staff member to be established and updated as necessary at the up date wall readers.

Any access cards that are lost or stolen can be quickly and simply deleted from the system just by visiting the readers with up-dated cards.  This also greatly reduces the number of visits necessary to off line doors, since user data is simply transferred on cards by normal usage.  And it completely eliminates the traditional need to replace locks if security is breached due to the loss or theft of an access card.

With future expansion plans and passenger traffic at Seychelles International Airport expected to grow, the next step will be to implement departmental operation to the SVN system.  This will allow each department at the airport to manage just their own doors and users, while certain other doors and users can be simultaneously shared with other areas, for example main entrance doors etc.  This provides maximum security for each department with the convenience and flexibility of shared main access control.

Gilbert Morin, Head of Seychelles International Airport says:  "Thanks to SALTO's ability to customise both their system hardware and software to our particular needs and operating environment, our new access control system enables us to manage the security needs of the airport in a much more controlled way.  The flexibility of the system means we can now get the maximum benefit from the technology and provide a secure environment for all our equipment, resources and staff."