Spanish IT solution provider Amadeus, in collaboration with Adria Airways and LOT Polish Airlines, has tested biometric boarding procedures at Ljubljana Jože Pučnik Airport in Slovenia.
The piloting of biometric technology yielded time savings and also improved the passenger experience by making boarding the aircraft faster, easy and more secure.
During the trial, nearly 175 passengers used the Amadeus smartphone app to enrol in the programme. Travellers were required to provide their ‘selfie’, photo of their passport, and boarding pass, which were stored securely on a remote server.
Subsequently, a picture of the passenger was snapped at the boarding gate and matched against those stored on the server to validate the passenger’s identity and flight status.
As soon as the photo and data matched, a message was sent to the departure control system to allow passengers to safely board the flight.
The testing of biometric procedure reduced average boarding times by almost 75% and completed boarding in just two seconds instead of the typical five to ten seconds per passenger.
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By GlobalDataAmadeus Airport IT executive vice-president Bruno Spada said: “This pilot marks an important milestone in our journey towards a remotely hosted biometrics solution for the industry where travellers only need to enrol once.
“Our solution is in line with IATA’s One ID vision meaning it works across all participating airports and airlines so passengers can arrive at the airport ready to travel.
“With a centrally hosted solution that sits between airports, airlines and passengers, we will deliver a common standards approach that works for everyone. Importantly, this means biometrics can be rolled out and scaled up quickly in areas such as check-in, security, and boarding.”
Now, Amadeus will work to set up a common, centralised industry platform for biometrics.
Amadeus is currently working at San José Norman Y Mineta Airport in the US to deliver CBP-TVS biometric exit solutions by this year.
In March, Amadeus acquired Australia’s ICM Airport Technics, an entity that offers passenger automation and self-service bag drop solutions for airports and airlines mainly in Asia-Pacific and European regions.
Denmark’s Billund Airport selected Amadeus’ Cloud-based technology in February to improve passenger experience and accelerate the automation process.
