Lufthansa Group, an early adopter of biometrics in the aviation sector, driving a wide utilisation of the technology at airports around the world, continues to work with its partners to enable biometrics adoption across different touchpoints and airports.
The airline’s first investment into biometrics goes as far back as 2018, when it launched a one-step biometric boarding process utilising facial recognition at Los Angeles International Airport. Today, the carrier has implemented its seamless boarding process at eight airports in the US.
“We’re one of the first airline groups in the world to start investing in biometrics and we haven’t looked back since,” enthuses Patrick Sgueglia, Product Manager, Regulatory Services & Biometrics, Lufthansa, in an interview with FTE ahead of his participation at the FTE Global Biometrics & Digital Identity Summit, taking place from December 7 to 9 in Las Vegas.
Despite the Covid-19 pandemic, Sgueglia insists that biometrics has remained at the top of Lufthansa’s agenda and the need for the technology has only been accelerated during the crisis.
“Our passengers expect a more touchless service and that’s the magic of biometrics. We’re hoping that as passengers return to travel, biometrics will be the new normal for them.”
The technology has improved drastically over the past few years, but the mandate for wearing face coverings in the airport terminal raised new challenges for vendors. New algorithms, however, are currently in development to ensure passengers can complete airport checks without removing their masks.
“We’re working extensively with our IT partners and biometric providers like Amadeus, SITA, Vision-Box, NEC, Idemia and others, who are adapting their algorithms to be able to match up a person’s face even with a mask on. It’s a testament to how far the technology has come, that we’re able to incorporate this mask requirement that we didn’t expect to happen prior to Covid-19.” - TradeArabia News Service