Many people would have heard about biometrics and its use in the financial world and also that it helps to nab criminals. Some would have even used it to open doors of their house or unlock their smartphones. But off-late, biometrics is being used in the travel industry. The technology can potentially streamline and provide a better airport experience.

As per the latest statistics provided by the International Air Transport Association, it is expected to touch more than 4 billion passengers and see an increase in air traffic by 5.4%. That poses a lot of issues to both the airport officials and the travellers.

Challenges faced by Travellers at the Airports & Expectation from Biometric

Travellers already face a lot of challenges navigating the security checkpoints and getting to the boarding gate. There is a huge stress on the travellers to clear the airport security as they fear lost identification documents, having to show the identification documents at every step, submitting oneself for personal check, baggage checks, long queues, and much more. All of these can be avoided if biometric technology can be used to streamline the airport experience and Biometric Security.

The use of biometric technology can make airport travel a lot easier, it can be as simple as boarding a flight with your luggage with no worry of carrying passports or tickets. Biometric technology like bio face recognition technology, iris pattern or the fingerprint scanning can help speed up the process of security checks in the airport. What is already in use in other industries may soon be seen even in the travel industry as customer experience and ease of travel is the top priority in this industry. Moreover, for airlines and airports, it is a way to save not just time but also physical resources as it is more than just a fast moving queue to them. Many airports and airlines are using this technology to provide biometric boarding, bag drop, etc. thereby providing an integrated service across various touchpoints.

Read: Achieving Enterprise Multifactor or Multimodal Authentication With Biometrics

How Biometrics can Help Identify and can Change the Shape of travel? 

There is a need for the aviation industry to speed things up by implementing smarter processes. There are long queues at immigration and check-in gates as there is a need to verify the identity of the passengers. Though it is difficult to fake passports, it can still be done but what cannot be faked is the unique characters like the face, fingerprints, etc. The technology used in biometric is such that it captures the traveller’s unique traits and creates an image of high-quality and compares it with the previously stored images. After it is compared, based on the match the passenger is allowed to board the flight.

Bag drop using biometric: Despite online check-in, luggage checking is a hassle. But not with the use of biometrics as it helps to save time and there is a record of the actual passenger placing the bag. That helps customers to move things fast and onboard the flight.

Also Read: What is Multi Factor Authentication and its Uses?

Implementing End-To-End Self-Service 

Biometric Technology is not going anywhere as it has the potential to make things easier wherever it is implemented. The same can be said about improving the travel experience too, what is to be seen is how soon the airlines and airports use it to their advantage and to enhance the customer experience.

Its implementation would not be easy as there are multiple users from different regions and countries and integrating the data for the authentication of various countries need a robust system and architecture and we all need to understand every country would have different technologies under which they would be operating. But having said that, if security teams of different country work together, it can not be difficult when priority for all of them is the safety & security of the country.

Also, Read More: Fastlane Facilitation Will Drive Biometric Adoption at Airports

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