Brazil’s pilot of Idemia face biometrics advances to simultaneous operation at capital airports

An air shuttle service between Brazilian state capitals São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro is testing an end-to-end biometric solution from Idemia for flight boarding with facial recognition replacing identity document checks.

The Project Embarque + Seguro is being jointly carried out by Idemia and partners Minfra and Serpro, the Federal Data Processing Service, which is in the process of privatization. The Ministry of Infrastructure developed the project in collaboration with Serpro and the Special Secretariat of Debureaucratization, Management and Digital Government of the Ministry of Economy, according to the announcement.

It has already been tested at Florianópolis (SC), Salvador (BA), Santos Dumont (RJ) and Belo Horizonte (Confins) airports. Once the pilot has been approved, Brazil’s Federal Government is expected to quickly roll out face biometrics at the country’s major airports.

The test is the first involving two airports simultaneously. The São Paulo-Rio de Janeiro route has the fifth-highest volume in the world, according to a government representative.

“This innovative project developed by the Federal Government allows travelers to enjoy a quieter, safer and more comfortable boarding experience and puts Brazil at the forefront of the digital transformation movement. IDEMIA as a global leader in augmented identity has the mission to facilitate the flow of passengers by creating the possibility to interact and travel in a more connected way. To participate in the first air shuttle with an end-to-end fully digitized boarding system, in both airports, is an important milestone in our history,” explains Rodrigo Costa, PSI business development director at Idemia LATAM.

Passengers of Brazilian carrier Azul Linhas Aéreas will be invited to take part in the pilot.

“The control of IDEMIA’s biometric system follows high-quality, reliability and safety standards and offers more agility and comfort to passengers, turning the airport operational process more intelligent, the airline passenger identification more accurate, and generates the security required by the government,” adds Idemia Brazil Director of Public Security & Identity Márcio Lambert.

Idemia’s MFACE technology is used to capture passenger facial biometrics within seconds, which can avoid queues and delays in the boarding process, the announcement says. The process complies with Brazil’s General Data Protection Law (LGPD), and eliminates the possibility of virus transmission through the exchange of identity documents.

The company’s face biometrics were rolled at Rio’s Santos Dumont airport in March.

Article Topics

airports  |  biometric identification  |  biometrics  |  Brazil  |  contactless  |  digital identity  |  facial recognition  |  IDEMIA  |  identity verification  |  passenger processing