Facial recognition screening is being tested on international passengers travelling on Singapore Airlines flights from Perth Airport, streamlining the passenger experience.
Biometric technology is widely recognised across the travel sector as representing the future for seamless travel, where every traveller will inherently become an identity credential.
For now, security documents are still in use and scanned through passenger e-gates, to compare with a pre-held image of the passenger.
Perth airport’s refurbishment recently got underway to increase safety with 36 self-service kiosks and 16 automatic bag drop-off stations which have biometric capabilities. Biometric technology is being implemented at every stage of the passenger journey to deliver on safety and enhanced consumer experience, hence leading not only to the installment of live facial recognition border controls and kiosks, but also real-time flight information displayed on screens around international airports. Even check-in procedures have been streamlined to cause minimal disruption to passenger journeys.
Kevin Brown, chief executive of Perth Airport, said: “The recently installed self-check-in kiosks and bag drop units enable passengers to check-in and facilitate bag drop independently without the intervention of airline staff – therefore improving passenger flow while reducing processing time and queuing”.
Amadeus is the biometric technology partner at Perth airport. The biometric token is protected and held on a secure server for only the necessary time before the passenger flies and is deleted within 24 hours of the token being created.
Biometric processing is common in airports across four continents with airports and airlines collaborating with each other and technology providers to ensure interoperability.
Louis Arul, Southwest Pacific Vice President at Singapore Airlines, said: “For 55 years we’ve enjoyed a strong relationship with Perth Airport, working together to find ways to improve our mutual customer’s travel experience”. Other alliances accelerating biometric systems include the Star Alliance which is made up of 26 member airlines, including Austrian airlines, Swiss International and Lufthansa Group.
