SITA’s new white paper on biometrics, ‘Face the Future’ highlights how a surge in air traveler numbers places pressure on existing and new airports, national borders and airline resources. As the paper states, “existing paper-based and manual travel infrastructure and legacy processes simply won’t be able to cope”.
The solution, the paper explains, lies in harnessing the power of facial and fingerprint biometrics. Use of these technologies can also solve other industry challenges, such as space constraints, specialist staff shortages and evolving passenger wants and needs.
The white paper includes case studies like the Star Alliance biometric initiative and the Indian government’s DigiYatra program. Both cases use SITA’s end-to-end biometric passenger processing solution, Smart Path.
The white paper notes that by 2026, over 50% of airports plan to implement biometrics at check-in and bag drop and 70% of airlines expect to have biometric ID management in place.
In related news, SITA’s 2023 Air Transport IT Insights report found that airports and airlines saw IT spending increase year-on-year into 2023, reaching an estimated US$10.8bn and US$34.5bn respectively. Click here to read the full story.