Delta Airlines Prepares to Trial Biometric Boarding with CLEAR

Delta Airlines is moving ahead with its CLEAR partnership with a biometric passenger screening pilot project now underway at the Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport (DCA).

The program allows Delta SkyMiles Members to use their fingerprints for authentication at the Delta Sky Club. Phase two will expand the program to let them use their fingerprints for baggage checking and boarding flights.

In a statement, Delta COO Gil West suggested that the program could eventually incorporate other biometric modalities, saying that the company is working toward a future in which “your fingerprint, iris or face will become the only ID you’ll need for any number of transactions throughout a given day.”

While Delta’s partnership with biometric screening specialist CLEAR was first announced last spring, news of the pilot program’s implementation arrives in the same week that US airline JetBlue announced a partnership with SITA and the Customs and Border Protection agency to trial a biometric program aimed at entirely replacing paper and mobile-based travel documents.

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June 1, 2017 – by Alex Perala