Cutting-edge biometric solutions to revolutionise air travel

By Pradeep Kushwaha

Once again, airports across the world are busier than ever. The Covid-19 pandemic shook the industry to its core and brought to fore the need to embrace emerging technology for people’s safety. An increasing number of airports worldwide are implementing biometric solutions to reduce contact at all passenger touch points, including check-in, immigration, and even the boarding process. Recently, Lufthansa Airlines and Swiss International Airlines (SWISS), Lufthansa Group airline members of Star Alliance, launched the “Star Alliance Biometrics” identity verification platform.

Many airports in India are also leveraging biometrics to address essential concerns as people begin to travel again. Lal Bahadur Shastri Airport in Varanasi, Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose airport in Kolkata, Vijayawada airport and Lohegaon airport in Pune amongst others, are the first few which are deploying biometric solutions to ensure faster check-ins keeping the safety of the citizens a priority.

DigiYatra Program from Ministry of Civil Aviation has planned to leverage facial recognition technology with automatic gates to enable a seamless and contactless passenger check-in and boarding. As part of this, an individual’s facial biometric data is used for ticket validation, bag drop, security check, and boarding. Once the passenger is willing to use this system his face image would be registered in the system for the duration of the passenger stay at the airport, advance security systems would be implemented for data security.

Technological innovation has been at the core of transformation witnessed by the air travel industry for years. The time spent at the airports for check-in and boarding had always been a pain point for all travellers and the authorities had been looking to technology organisations to resolve this grave issue. The deployment of biometric solutions had picked up in 2019. However, the pandemic has expedited the need to further accelerate the adoption of touchless and seamless biometrics to relieve travellers from the hassle and bring all the stakeholders, including airlines, airports, and authorities, on one platform to revolutionise the passenger travel experience while ensuring a broader control.

According to a recent survey by The International Air Transport Association (IATA), 63 per cent of the world’s top airports, airlines, and government agencies sought to implement biometric technologies at airports for contactless travel. Let’s look at some of the top air travel trends that passengers in India are likely to experience in near future with the implementation of advanced technology solutions.

1. On the way to the airport, passengers can register their face and information using a smartphone.
2. At check-in, no need to queue; the information along with a passenger’s passport is verified using facial recognition. So now the face is the pass for all the airport checkpoints.
3. Passengers can get bag tags and handover bags through self-service kiosks where they can make a selection by just the movement of their head or eyes. Some high-tech airports might go a step future to ensure passenger safety — passengers may drop their bags at the self-drop where their face is checked to confirm their identity, and that information is tagged to the bag.
4. At security, gates screen passenger’s faces as they approach and open without a show of boarding card. For immigration, alongside facial recognition other technologies are used to check the passenger’s identity against the government’s e-data base allowing a smooth and secure passage.
5. As the passengers move through the airport, installed sensors will automatically check their body temperature and signal in case of a deeper introspection.
6. Before the journey starts, flyers can use their phone to order food or any other item from the airport premises directly at their gate to avoid unnecessary movement.
7. If a passenger visits duty-free, his path can be recorded and if someone hasn’t turned up for the flight, his whereabouts can be easily tracked using the system. If someone is still at the security check-in at the boarding time his bags can be easily taken off the plan to reduce hassle.

Right now, our face is the key to unlock our phone, but soon it is going to be the password for everything like bank accounts, online payments, air travel, etc. Airport travel, like any other experience, is getting transformed with the application of emerging technology as information technology solutions reverberate vital knowledge for seamless air travel. Biometric with artificial intelligence and big data breaks down barriers between touchpoints and allows users to experience a unique connected air journey in the ‘Next Normal’.