World’s first airport to require biometric boarding to arrive in 2025

As travel routes resume at U.S. Transportation Security Administration (TSA) airport checkpoints in late summer, overseas airports are gearing up to create biometric passenger experiences. By 2025, Abu Dhabi Zayed International Airport’s smart travel initiative will install biometric sensors at every airport identification checkpoint.

Airport security and tourism experts generally welcomed the move.

“I applaud them for having the audacity to adopt facial recognition as a means of getting travelers into their system,” said Sheldon Jacobson, a professor of engineering and computer science at the University of Illinois. Jacobson has been studying airport security since the 1990s and helped the TSA develop the pre-screening program, which allows some travelers in the United States to skip checkpoints. “Facial recognition is the wave of the future, and we're going to start making airport security smart and focus on the traveler rather than what they're bringing in,” Jacobson said. “By doing that, you create a different Example. “What they're doing in Abu Dhabi is just a start, but it has to start somewhere.”

Going completely paperless, from parking lots to seat-back tray tables, has some people uneasy, wondering whether a Crowdstrike-type outage could bring down the all-electronic check-in system and bring travel to a halt. But Jacobson said these are very rare events, and even if the system is completely shut down due to an outage, the net benefits of the biometric travel experience will outweigh the costs over time.

Plans for Zayed International Airport rely on cooperation with the government. The UAE Federal Authority for Identity, Citizenship, Customs and Port Security collects biometric information from travelers arriving in the UAE for the first time. The airport then uses this database to verify passengers passing through the checkpoint. The airport did not respond to a request for comment on its plans. Saeed Saif Al Khaili, Director General of the Federal Authority for Status, Citizenship, Customs and Port Security of the United Arab Emirates, said in a recent press release The Biometric Smart Travel initiative “aims to enhance the travel experience at Zayed International Airport from curbside to gate, ensuring high levels of security and safety.”

Jacobson said the TSA tends to move more slowly and incrementally on changes, while the UAE's political system allows for faster implementation of plans, so such all-encompassing biometric data collection likely won't be rolled out in the U.S., At least not now. He said that whenever a new biometric program is introduced, it encounters “enormous resistance.”

Still, the American public seems increasingly comfortable with the use of biometric technology in airports.

According to data analytics firm JD Power and Associates, a majority of people surveyed at major U.S. airports (53%) said it would be a good idea for airports to adopt biometric technology or that they would be willing to use biometric security checks. Another 12% said it was a good idea but had privacy concerns.

Concerns expressed included what type of data would be required during the biometric enrollment process and whether biometric security processes would be used to track movement throughout the airport, or whether biometric data would be used outside the airport.

Mike Taylor, senior executive at JD Power, said: “In order for this technology to become more widely available and for airports and passengers to take advantage of it, airports should develop clear guidelines and processes and make passengers aware of its potential uses.

Shawn DuBravac, futurist and author of “Digital Destiny: How the New Age of Data Will Transform the Way We Work, Live and Communicate,” said he believes biometric technology will transform travel . “While we are seeing more and more people using biometric sensors to simplify travel, the vision of a completely paperless experience by next year is very ambitious,” he said.

Travel veterans generally agree that some aspect of biometric technology will be involved in future airport visits, if it isn't already. Dubravac believes that biometric technology at U.S. airports is being used as a tool to improve human factors response capabilities.

“Instead of managing mundane tasks such as document verification, staff can provide a higher level of customer service, assist travelers with special needs, and ensure that the overall guest experience is efficient and welcoming. Automating daily processes will result in a more human experience, ” he said.

Billionaire Elon Musk praises Zayed's innovations CommentX The United States needs to “catch up” after a video showed a traveler checking in with ease at Abu Dhabi Airport.

“Musk’s comments border on wishful thinking,” said Irina Tsukerman, a national security lawyer and fellow at the Arabian Peninsula Institute. She noted that privacy concerns and costs could hinder the implementation of a full biometric airport experience in the U.S.

“This works well in Abu Dhabi because the UAE is a small, wealthy monarchy with a high level of public trust in the government and sufficient resources to devote to technological innovation,” Zuckerman said. The United States does not have the same ingredients “for all qualifiers.” Conditioning passengers to transition to full automation would be time-consuming, burdensome, expensive and would encounter resistance from airport unions,” she said.

Despite Musk’s attacks on U.S. airports, the U.S. is not without biometric technology.

In 2018, LAX became one of the first airports in the United States to pilot biometric boarding, and now it's an option for eligible passengers.

“At LAX, we use biometric technology to support our airline partners and federal authorities in expediting the boarding process for internationally departing flights,” said Ian Law, chief digital transformation officer for Los Angeles World Airports, which includes LAX. Each international departure gate has up to four biometric lanes, and facial recognition technology can be used for contactless, paperless passenger verification.

“Airlines can significantly reduce the time it takes to board a plane, thereby reducing the time passengers spend queuing,” Law said.

While no U.S. airport has come close to Abu Dhabi’s goal of a fully biometric airport, many U.S. airports use at least some biometric technology. According to the TSA, its PreCheck option is currently available at more than 200 airports and more than 90 participating airlines nationwide and features voluntary facial recognition. To be approved for PreCheck, participants fill out an online form, pay a fee, undergo a background check, an in-person interview and, optionally, a facial recognition scan.

Publicly traded company Clear is also in more than 55 U.S. airports, allowing those who pay and undergo pre-checking to skip lines and board via biometrics. The service has discouraged some lawmakers from establishing a passenger tiering system, and a group of California lawmakers tried and failed to restrict Clear earlier this year.

Travel technology provider Amadeus is not involved in Abu Dhabi Airport's biometric program, but it does have biometric programs at other airports including Dubai, Vancouver, Perth and London's Heathrow. Chris Keller, vice president of airport and airline operations at Amadeus, said that for the foreseeable future, airports will be able to implement paper backups if technical issues arise. “We expect more and more passengers to use biometrics, but there will always be a group of people, perhaps those who need special assistance or premium passengers, who will choose an agent-assisted experience and prefer paper documents,” Keller said. .

Jacobson said airport biometric systems would recognize the faces of potential criminals and thwart their efforts. “Once the person is known, it creates a deterrent effect and reduces the risk,” he said. But he also said Musk's comments lacked proper context. “It's not that we're behind, it's a gradual process of growth and development,” he said. “We're not going to get there this week. It's going to take some willingness and proof of concept.”

For example, when PreCheck in was launched in 2011, it took eight years from inception to implementation.

“People are uncomfortable with change, and whenever we make changes we have to be more efficient, safer and more intrusive,” Jacobson said.

In the United States, it can take a while to get from terminal check-in to airplane seat just by showing your face.