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From Pradeep Kushwaha
Pradeep Kushwaha, Head of Public Safety, NEC Corporation India
Once again, airports around the world are busier than ever. The Covid-19 pandemic rocked the industry to the core and made it clear that new technologies must be used to keep people safe. More and more airports around the world are implementing biometric solutions to reduce contact at all passenger contact points, including check-in, immigration and even boarding. Lufthansa Airlines and Swiss International Airlines (SWISS), members of the Lufthansa Group’s Star Alliance, recently launched the “Star Alliance Biometrics” identity verification platform.
Many airports in India are also using biometrics to solve essential problems when people start traveling again. Lal Bahadur Shastri Airport in Varanasi, Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose Airport in Calcutta, Vijayawada Airport and Lohegaon Airport in Pune are the first to use biometric solutions to ensure faster check-in, with citizen safety a priority.
The Ministry of Civil Aviation’s DigiYatra program has planned to use facial recognition technology with automatic gates to enable seamless and contactless boarding and boarding of passengers. As part of this, a person’s facial biometric data is used for ticket validation, bag dropping, security checkpoints, and boarding. As soon as the passenger is ready to use this system, his facial image is registered in the system for the duration of the passenger’s stay at the airport, and advance security systems for data security are implemented.
Technological innovation has been at the core of change in the aviation industry for years. Check-in and boarding time at airports had always been an issue for all travelers, and authorities had turned to technology organizations to help resolve this serious problem. The use of biometric solutions increased in 2019. However, the pandemic has accelerated the need to further accelerate the adoption of non-contact and seamless biometric data to relieve travelers from the hassle and involve all stakeholders, including airlines, airports and government agencies, while providing a platform to revolutionize the travel experience of passengers to ensure broader control.
According to a recent survey by the International Air Transport Association (IATA), 63 percent of the world’s leading airports, airlines and government agencies have tried to implement biometric technologies in airports for contactless travel. Let’s look at some of the major air travel trends that passengers in India are likely to see in the near future with the implementation of advanced technology solutions.
1. On the way to the airport, passengers can register their faces and information with a smartphone.
2. You don’t have to wait in line to check in. The information along with a passenger’s passport is verified using facial recognition. Now the face is the passport for all checkpoints at the airport.
3. Passengers can obtain bag tags and drop-off bags from self-service kiosks where they can make a selection by simply moving their head or eyes. Some high tech airports could take a step forward to keep passengers safe. Passengers can drop off their suitcases at the self-dropping point where their face will be checked to confirm their identity and this information will be placed on the bag.
4. In security, the gates check passengers’ faces as they approach and open without showing a boarding pass. Immigration uses other technologies in addition to facial recognition to verify the passenger’s identity against the government’s e-database and enable a smooth and secure passage.
5. As the passengers move through the airport, installed sensors automatically check their body temperature and signal in the event of deeper introspection.
6. Before traveling, flyers can use their phone to order groceries or other items at the airport gate to avoid unnecessary movements.
7. When a passenger visits duty free, their route can be recorded, and if someone did not show up for the flight, their whereabouts can easily be tracked using the system. If someone is still at the security check-in at the time of boarding, their baggage can easily be removed from the schedule to reduce the hassle.
Right now, our face is the key to unlocking our phone, but soon it will be the password for everything like bank accounts, online payments, air travel, etc. Airport travel is changing like any other application experience of emerging technology as information technology solutions reflect the important Knowledge for seamless air traffic. Biometrics with artificial intelligence and big data removes barriers between points of contact and enables users to experience a unique networked flight journey in the “next normal”.
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