Travellers might no longer need to present their boarding passes to board flights at Abu Dhabi’s Zayed International Airport as soon as next year.
ADVERTISEMENTTravellers to Abu Dhabi's Zayed International Airport may soon be able to use facial recognition to check in for flights.
Abu Dhabi Airports is developing a "Smart Travel" project that involves rolling out biometric authentification artificial intelligence (AI) into all security checkpoints at the airport by 2025.
The project will use the databases of the United Arab Emirates’ Federal Authority for Identity, Citizenship, Customs and Port Security to "automatically authenticate travellers," according to a July statement from the local government.
This will get rid of prior registration that passengers normally need to do as soon as they get to the airport.
Etihad Airways already has biometric systems in place that use facial recognition before boarding and assists with self-service baggage delivery and traveller check-ins.
That means people won’t need their boarding passes to board one of Etihad’s planes. The technology is also being implemented for five additional airlines at check-in and boarding gates.
These new technologies means it will take roughly seven seconds from the 25 at regular kiosks to go through the entire ticket and travel document verification process.
The project "will enhance airline performance by eliminating the need for expensive infrastructure expansions and effectively detecting fraud and forgery in identification documents," a statement from Abu Dhabi Airports reads.
Biometric advances in EU airports
Italian authorities started trials in May on a similar software called FaceBoarding that uses facial recognition at two airports: Milano Linate and Catania.
Travellers use airport kiosks to show their documents and scan their faces. That lets them use FaceBoarding again at other checkpoints, making it faster for security and boarding.
SEA, the company managing the new Italian system, says on the Milano-Linate airport websitethat those who opt-in to Faceboarding will have their data processed only "for the purpose of participation in the project".
"Facial images are not stored, but are only used to create a biometric template required for passing security checks and eventually board at the gate," their website continued.
Individual airlines like ITA Airways and Scandinavian Airlines (SAS) have also signed up to use the system for their clients.
The EU is also getting ready to launch its Entry/Exit System (EES), an automatic registration system for travellers from the UK and non-EU countries.
That system asks travellers without long-stay visas to scan their faces and passports at self-serve kiosks when they cross EU borders.
ADVERTISEMENTA traveller’s name, biometrics, and date of entry/exit will be recorded and retained for up to three years after each trip.
The system will launch on November 10, EU Home Affairs Commissioner Ylva Johansson previously told Euronews.
