Biometric boarding introduced at airports in Spain and China

Menorca Airport in Spain and Huangshan Tunxi International Airport in Anhui Province, China are the latest airports to announce biometric boarding using facial recognition instead of a boarding pass for security processing to streamline airport passenger movement.

Airport operator Aena and Air Europa are collaborating on the year-long Menorca biometric boarding trial along with GroundForce and Everis Aerospace & Defence and Dormakaba, according to Breaking Travel News.

The trial will have Air Europa passengers who voluntarily opt-in for biometric boarding to be able to pass security checkpoints and boarding gates without having to show their boarding pass or ID. Passengers who opt-out may proceed as before, by showing their boarding pass and ID.

Huangshan Tunxi International Airport located in Anhui Province, China has also deployed facial recognition technology to speed up the boarding process. The biometric boarding system was developed and designed by Anhui Airport Information Technology Co. and according to a company statement the system authenticates passengers within 3 seconds.

The airport noted that it will continue to improve the system and that it is committed to providing passengers with a more convenient travel experience and more intelligent services.

Airports across the globe are investing to rapidly increase deployments of smart technologies such as artificial intelligence and biometrics, but this represents the preliminary stage of a far-reaching industry commitment to transform airport travel, according to Acuity Market Intelligence.

Article Topics

airports  |  biometrics  |  China  |  facial recognition  |  passenger processing  |  Spain