SITA expands airport biometrics portfolio with new partnership, self-serve solutions

The air transportation industry continues to invest heavily in digitization and IT infrastructure, with the announcement that SITA and Skyports have entered a partnership that will see SITA implement its biometrics solutions at Skyports’ vertiport locations for the Advanced Air Mobility (AAM) Industry. The company has also launched solutions for easier self-service development, and self bag-drops with or without biometrics.

Skyports is a leader in providing infrastructure for the AAM industry, which pursues air transport via electrical vertical takeoff and landing aircraft, or eVTOL, which move people and things to places it is not easy for existing aircraft to reach, in community-friendly and cost-efficient ways. (A “vertiport” is an airport for eVTOLs.)

SITA will develop custom technology, including biometric solutions, to try and create the autonomy, ease and convenience for passengers that Skyports aims to provide in its vertiports.

“Everything we do at Skyports is underpinned by the belief that there is a faster, smarter, more streamlined way to travel. Our work with SITA will demonstrate how that translates to the passenger journey,” said Duncan Walker, CEO of Skysports, in a company announcement. “To make AAM work, there needs to be a demonstrable benefit to the end-user. Hence the passenger experience is fundamental to our success.”

Features of the new vertiport system will include mobile booking powered by SITA’s biometrics solutions, and pods equipped with facial recognition for passenger check-in.

According to a report by Deloitte, the AAM market for cargo and passenger transport in the U.S. is set to approach $115 billion by 2035.

Flex-as-a-Service

SITA has also made moves in the traditional airline space, launching Flex-as-a-Service, a platform that leverages Microsoft Azure to make agents mobile, agile and able to better respond to increased congestion and complexity at airports. Through SITA Flex, agents could check-in passengers in remote locations, or launch roaming agents during busy hours.

The platform is also intended to ease the development of self-service solutions for airports and airlines.

Swift Drop

A self bag-drop solution has also been unveiled by SITA and partner Alstef Group, with Mexico’s Felipe Ángeles International Airport which opened in March installing 20 of the new Swift Drop units.

Swift Drop is part of SITA’s Smart Path portfolio, and promises faster baggage processing than manual processes.

“The partnership with Alstef Group – leveraging their significant baggage handling portfolio – enriches our end-to-end offering with a fast, convenient, and reliable self-bag drop solution,” comments SITA Airports Head Drew Griffiths. “This solution has the added benefit of being easily biometrically enabled.”

Article Topics

airports  |  biometrics  |  digital identity  |  facial recognition  |  identity verification  |  mobile biometrics  |  passenger processing  |  SITA  |  vertiport