AwardWallet receives compensation from advertising partners for links on the blog. Terms Apply to the offers listed on this page. The opinions expressed here are our own and have not been reviewed, provided, or approved by any bank advertiser. Here's our complete list of Advertisers.
In an age of enhanced security at most airports, governments and airlines are deploying more and more technologies to make travel safe and speed up the process of clearing the various security checks at airports while maintaining a gold standard of passenger safety. The latest company to implement a new technology is KLM, which is now testing biometric face scanning at the gate. The test by KLM will run for the next three months at the company’s home base, Schiphol Airport in Amsterdam (AMS).
The main aim of the new approach is to improve security and speed up the boarding process for passengers. The pilot will run at one dedicated gate in Schiphol.
How Will Biometric Boarding Work
Passengers will scan their passports and biometric data at gates just before the jetway. The scan will then confirm the passenger’s identity and confirm that they are booked on the flight. This will eliminate the need to show a boarding pass or passport at the gate. To use the service, you will have to pre-register your passport. This will involve a scan of your passport and face being done at specific kiosks before you arrive at the gate area. As part of the trial process and to ensure travelers’ privacy, all personal data will be erased from the kiosk after 10 hours.
This trial by KLM further develops the trend to incorporate hi-tech solutions to airport security, currently in the US, Clear uses a combination of fingerprints and iris scans to speed up the processing of passengers, while other countries regularly use digital prints scan to enhance their border security.
Overall
This is a welcome development for anyone who frequently travels, since clearing the various levels of security can be tiresome and time-consuming. Every step taken to speed up the process and make it easier, while maintaining the highest standards of passenger safety is a welcome one in the right direction. The latest development, in addition to the current trial being run at Amsterdam airport, is to eliminate the need for passengers to remove liquids and laptops from their carry-on’s.
Source & Images: KLM.
The comments on this page are not provided, reviewed, or otherwise approved by the bank advertiser. It is not the bank advertiser's responsibility to ensure all posts and/or questions are answered.
Such “enhacements” almost never work as planned and almost always get scrapped quietely after a while.
i guess they will start this experience soon in Paris airport. KLM partrner hub
Yea no this is just weird. Not a fan of the idea.
We are always on CCTV anyway. I’m not thrilled about his but in any major city you are constantly monitored and you can’t opt out.
This is the future, like it or not. If it speeds things up, why not? I fly to Amsterdam a lot and this is a beast of an airport. Security checks can take forever.
This sounds good but I’m sure that info doesn’t get completely deleted. Is this something that you can check in at the kiosk or another one to get this info after check in but before the gate? I so miss the days of just walking right through. Oh what time does to us all. Thank you on this update!
wonder what happens when this is a screw up with this technology
As much as I don’t like it. This probably will become the standard in security one day. Not sure the technology is ready yet. Will see I guess.
If this speeds up the screening process for US bound flights at AMS, really hate that que they have us in
Oh, dear, the future is here. Worts and all.
To me it was obvious that security arrangements for airlines would ramp up and this is just another level, this is certainly not the end of additional layers.
I’m interested to see how this works out. Making travel faster would be helpful.
It will be interesting to see how well it works – is it accurate, does it really save time, etc.
I like the idea. If it makes things move faster why not.
I will be flying through Schiphol in June. Maybe I will get a chance to try out this new technology.
Issues – When scanning, do the machines emit any radiation? Will this actually speed up the boarding process? What happens when passenger number 12 is innocently not recognized and rightly attempts to go through three or four times? Is there a back up plan for when the machines go down? As any machine, these are not perfect either.
Nope, they just take a series of photos and compare the eye/mouth position with that stored in your passport. The UK uses this technology at passport control, UK/EU citizens can use automated gates to bypass the lines – it takes about 20 seconds, though most of that seems to be reading the passport, once read it’s quick, which is probably why KLM are using separate passport scanners before the gate.
What these security firms including TSA should invest in is full body scanners that can be walked-through. It’d totally speed up the lines by eliminating waiting in line for the current scanners.
Like it or not, biometrics is likely to be the next frontier in access and security. I certainly see both sides of the argument as to whether this is a good thing or not.
Is this technology any good?
I guess we’ll find out through the trial.
Good to hear that they are testing eliminating removal of liquids.
oh dear. and I had beard plans.
I guess you’ll be OK as long as you don’t arrive at the airport too early and have time to grow a beard between scanning your passport and boarding via the gate. I must remember not to book long connections.
Hopefully this does truly speeds up boarding.
I hope this too.
Apart from the safety also the waiting time is important.
It is very interesting, in fact a biometric approach should reduce also lines and time for international transit
A worrying development. I feel that our civil liberties are slowly being eroded away by all these advances. I still insist on opting out of the machines… wonder if we will be able to opt out of these?
This is a very worrying trend. How far will all these advances in security be taken before we all feel our civil liberties are being trampled upon. Understand than many are worrying about safety when traveling but how far does it go?
If I put a funny face on will it work?