Kenya’s EU ambassador says biometric technology can help troubled Kenya Airways

Kenya’s ambassador to Belgium and the European Union, Bitange Ndemo, says that technologies such as artificial intelligence, including facial recognition and fingerprint biometrics, could help solve problems facing the country’s national carrier Kenya Airways (KQ).

He urged the company to invest in AI solutions that could improve its safety, efficiency, and customer experience, including chatbots, data-driven personalization and more.

“For example, biometric facial recognition and fingerprint scanning technologies streamline check-in and boarding processes,” Ndemo writes in a column published by Business Daily Africa.

Airlines and airports worldwide have been expanding the use of face biometrics at a fast pace. Airports in the U.S., Vietnam, Kazakhstan and India have all introduced new projects for digital ID verification and authentication during the past several weeks.

African countries are no exception, with the Nigerian government in talks with the Japanese NEC Corporation to deploy facial recognition technology at some of the country’s airports, starting with Abuja and Lagos. Kenya has already implemented a facial recognition system supplied by NEC in at least one of its airports.

Other air carriers are pitching more outlandish solutions for airport security. European short-haul carrier EasyJet recently released a report saying that in the future, biometric heartbeats could replace traditional paper passports for more efficient security.

Article Topics

Africa  |  AI  |  airports  |  biometrics  |  facial recognition  |  Kenya  |  passenger processing