Biometrics Will Soon Allow Travelers to Check into Flights with their Faces, Instead of Plastic ID and Boarding Passes

Travelers’ faces will soon replace their government-issued photo identifications and boarding passes, thanks to advancements in biometrics that can verify identity and shorten security procedures.

In fact, people will soon be able to use their faces to do other airport tasks, such as checking bags and clearing customs, which are already starting to be automated using biometrics in some international terminals.

Biometrics use automation to identify and verify unique individual traits, such as fingerprints and faces.

Travelers who choose to opt into biometric programs can move through airports more quickly, efficiently, and securely.

“The technologies have gotten much more sophisticated and the accuracy rate much higher,” said Robert Tappan, the managing director for the trade group International Biometrics + Identity Association, told the New York Times.

Tappen said that the need to reduce contact among people in public, which was caused by the COVID pandemic, accelerated airports’ use of biometrics.

A digital transformation in airports also saves airlines and airports money, which is an attractive and motivating benefit after the COVID pandemic caused a sharp decline in travel, said Jason Van Sice, the vice president of aviation in the Advanced Recognition Systems Division of NEC Corporation of America, which has been working in biometrics since 1971.

In the last year, many airports, airlines, tech companies, and government agencies such as the Transportation Security Administration and United States Customs and Border Protection increased their investments in biometric advancements. 

Many of the latest biometric developments use facial recognition, which the National Institute of Standards and Technology recently found is at least 99.5% accurate, rather than iris-scanning or fingerprints.

“The face is the easiest because all the documents we use that prove your identity: driver’s license and passports, rely on face,” said Sherry Stein, the head of technology in the Americas for SITA, a Switzerland-based biometrics tech company.

After the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, Congress mandated the use of biometric technology to increase security of travelers who enter and exit U.S. borders, but some travelers expressed concerns about their privacy.

Some companies and agencies that use the technology, however, say that the systems largely rely on willing travelers who agree to their use, and that the images that are taken are not retained.

“Privacy is a major concern, as it should be, so most of these programs are going to be opt-in, and the government is trying to grow that pre-vetted audience,” said Sice.

Although some travelers in the past 20 years may have been wary of biometrics at airports, the need for more social distancing caused by pandemic may be advancing biometric acceptance. 

While only 46% of passengers said in 2019 that they were willing to share their biometric data, that number shot up to 73% in 2021, the International Air Transport Association reported from data collected in a recent survey. 

Photo By: Flicker