Airplane travelers will no longer be required to scan their boarding passes or go through check-in procedures prior to departure as part of the most significant overhaul of air travel in half a century.
As per the regulations set forth by the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO), within three years, travelers will have the ability to undergo facial scanning upon arriving at airports and store their passport information on their smartphones.
This will eliminate the conventional procedure of showing a boarding pass to security and handing over your passport at the check-in desk.
Instead of holding onto physical documents for identification purposes, travelers can now use a ‘digital travel credential,’ which will be saved on their smartphones.
This digital package will contain all necessary documents for boarding a plane, such as your passport and flight information.
Included in their travel package, customers can download a ‘travel pass’ to their smartphones, ensuring they get automatic updates about any delays or cancellations of their flights.
Depending on the amount of luggage brought to the airport, passengers will either go through security at the bag drop off point or at security gates.
After arriving at the airport, airlines will be notified about a passenger’s plan to fly once their face has been scanned by security personnel.
Currently, before taking off passengers are expected to either download their boarding pass or print it off at the airport, which is then scanned at the boarding gate.
But in the new system this will not be necessary and it is expected it will radically shorten the process of going through security at airports when they are brought in.
However, airports will need to install facial recognition technology in order to scan passport photographs and people’s faces.
The ICAO has stated that airports will not retain any data captured through computer scans during the check-in procedure.
Any data recorded will be deleted from the computer system after 15 seconds to prevent any breaches of personal information.
There are only a few countries where facial recognition technology is used in this way, including America for passengers returning home from abroad.
Last year, the Home Office mentioned they were considering implementing e-gates at border checkpoints with facial recognition technology to eliminate the necessity of presenting a passport.
Talking to The Times, Valerie Viale from Amadeus—the global leader in travel technology—stated: “This transformation marks the most significant shifts in five decades. Numerous airline systems have remained largely unchanged for over half a century since all processes must align with industry standards and work seamlessly together.”
Currently, airlines possess systems that operate in isolation.
‘The reservation system collaborates with the delivery system once check-in begins, communicating “I have my reservations; you can start delivering them now.” ‘
‘The future will see much greater continuity with “journey passes” becoming adaptive.’
Along with the more efficient security check procedures, certain airlines are contemplating incorporating a ‘location-based’ feature within their digital travel package.
British Airways, Air France-KLM, Finnair, and Saudia Airlines are reportedly assessing the service, designed to offer passengers guidance to their departure gates.
Additionally, there will be an option to automatically inform rental car companies about flight delays, preventing any misunderstandings or extra fees.
Nevertheless, airports have historically fallen victim to depending excessively on technology.
Last July, flights were halted globally due to a Microsoft outage resulting from a defective update that led to widespread disruption.
Departure boards at airports such as Heathrow, Gatwick, and Edinburgh froze entirely, leaving passengers stuck for hours.
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