Airport facial recognition trial sees significant time savings

SITA president for Asia Pacific Sumesh Patel says facial recognition trials at Australia’s Brisbane Airport have shown a 70 per cent reduction in passenger processing times for boarding and check-in, according to a report in Australian Aviation.

Brisbane Airport began the pilot project in March in partnership with SITA and Air New Zealand.

Brisbane Airport is the first Australian airport to trial this secure walkthrough experience at check-in and the boarding gate using SITA’s biometric technology, which integrates with the airport’s existing common-use solutions. With SITA Smart Path, travel documents are linked to the biometric at check-in, and when it comes time to get on the aircraft, passengers simply walk through an automated boarding gate which uses facial recognition technology to verify the correct passenger is boarding the correct aircraft without the need to present a boarding pass, a passport or travel document.

The first phase of this trial is focused on the use of facial recognition biometrics only at check-in and boarding, but Patel anticipates the technology will soon be used at automated bag drop kiosks and border processing.

Roel Hellemons, Brisbane Airport general manager strategic planning and development, commented: “A key benefit of working with SITA is its technology integrates with our existing common-use infrastructure – check-in kiosks and boarding gates – and can be used by any airline that operates on a common-use kiosk. As we progress we hope to integrate with various government systems for immigration and border checks.”

Article Topics

airports  |  Australia  |  biometrics  |  facial recognition  |  SITA