Different airport biometrics adoption models at DFW, Seychelles

Dallas Fort Worth (DFW) continues to pioneer digital ID and biometric approaches to improve the passenger experience and site management. The latest developments are a trial of Mastercard’s digital ID with SITA’s Smart Path for granting airside access initially for staff and Spirit Airlines is introducing automated bag-drop with biometric photo-matching. Meanwhile Seychelles International Airport has opened a fully biometric corridor built by Travizory for contactless checking of inbound passengers’ identities and health status.

Staff at DFW will be able to register for Mastercard digital identity and store this in a smartphone app. During the trial they will be able to pass through an automated identity checking channel from airport systems and communications firm SITA. The Smart Path conducts a biometric scan of the individual’s face at security checkpoints to check against the ID system’s permitted list.

The view is to eventually roll the service out to passengers.

“This initiative reflects our broader goal of providing verifiable digital credentials to both employees and passengers to streamline and improve the security process while ensuring a convenient and seamless experience,” comments Paul Puopolo, DFW’s executive vice president of Innovation.

While enrolled staff can use their faces to pass through security, Spirit passengers can use theirs for bag-drop. Already in place at New York’s La Guardia and Chicago O’Hare, the now award-winning systems uses biometric photo-matching. Spirit partnered with Materna Intelligent Passenger Solutions (IPS) North America, the system currently in its trial stage at DFW should mean there is no need to present a government-issued ID.

The biometric approach is optional as agents are also available for bag-drop. After check-in, passengers, whether domestic or international, tag their own bags and scan their boarding cards at the self-drop point. If they choose the biometric route, the kiosk scans their physical ID credential then uses a biometric scan of a passenger’s face to match it with the credential. If successful, the passenger puts the luggage onto the conveyor belt.

No data is transmitted to any government agency. Spirit passengers check in between 400 and 500 bags per day at DFW and the new approach could reduce a passenger’s transaction time by 30 percent at 70 seconds.

The system can analyze physical features of more than 50,000 ID types from nearly 200 countries and confirms the authenticity of the documents.

DFW’s Puopolo was also among those honored at the Future Travel Experience Global show this week in Las Vegas, along with Spirit SVP and CIO Rocky Wiggins, and representatives from Delta and American Airlines.

Seychelles opens biometric corridor for checking arrivals

Seychelles International Airport follows the UAE to become the second location where arriving passengers can move through a “bio corridor,” in this case developed by Travizory which uses facial recognition for biometric identification to link to the island nation’s database of authorized travelers. It checks temperatures and travel authorizations and classifies the passengers based on pre-departure risk assessments.

The classification then directs arrivals on to immigration, medical examination or quarantine, based on pre-departure assessments.

“With a match time of less than one second per traveller, the bio corridor screens an average of 30 travellers per minute, enabling a wide-body aircraft with 300 travellers to be processed in under 10 minutes,” says the Ministry of Transport.

Travizory and Smart Engines partnered to develop a biometric travel app for the Seychelles earlier this year.

Tourism forms the majority of the Indian Ocean archipelago’s economy.

Article Topics

airports  |  biometric identification  |  biometrics  |  digital identity  |  face biometrics  |  facial recognition  |  identity verification  |  Mastercard  |  passenger processing  |  SITA  |  Travizory