French technology giant Thales was named Frost & Sullivan’s 2025 Company of the Year in Automated Border Control, the firm announced on 24 October 2025. Analysts praised Thales’s modular e-gate platforms, already deployed at Paris-Charles-de-Gaulle and being rolled out across EU airports ahead of full EES enforcement.
The award cites Thales’s integration of AI-driven risk scoring and eco-design principles that cut gate energy consumption by 20 %. With passenger volumes projected to exceed 2019 levels by 2026, airport operators view automated gates as critical to maintaining throughput while meeting stringent biometric capture rules.
For France-based multinationals, the accolade underscores domestic expertise in travel-tech and may accelerate public-private partnerships to upgrade regional airports such as Nice and Toulouse. Thales plans to pilot a ‘boarding pass + biometrics’ one-tap corridor at Orly in Q3 2026, which could shorten connection times for domestic-to-Schengen transfers to under five minutes.
Procurement teams should monitor certification timelines; gates installed after July 2026 must meet the EU’s new cyber-security reference framework, potentially affecting legacy equipment.
The award cites Thales’s integration of AI-driven risk scoring and eco-design principles that cut gate energy consumption by 20 %. With passenger volumes projected to exceed 2019 levels by 2026, airport operators view automated gates as critical to maintaining throughput while meeting stringent biometric capture rules.
For France-based multinationals, the accolade underscores domestic expertise in travel-tech and may accelerate public-private partnerships to upgrade regional airports such as Nice and Toulouse. Thales plans to pilot a ‘boarding pass + biometrics’ one-tap corridor at Orly in Q3 2026, which could shorten connection times for domestic-to-Schengen transfers to under five minutes.
Procurement teams should monitor certification timelines; gates installed after July 2026 must meet the EU’s new cyber-security reference framework, potentially affecting legacy equipment.
