Indian Airports Preparing Biometric Boarding Systems: Report

Officials at the Pune airport in India are in the early stages of installing a biometric boarding system, according to a new report from The Times of India.

Citing sources at the airport, the report says that officials are preparing a system based on facial recognition that will eliminate the need for travelers to show their boarding passes and identity documents. Instead, a given passenger will undergo a one-time registration that will link them to a unique digital signature; from there, cameras mounted in the airport will be able to verify their credentials throughout the boarding process.

The experiment will start with a trial program at the Pune airport, with plans to ultimately extend it to all of India’s airports. One particular source told The Times of India that the system is already being trialed at the Hyderabad airport.

It isn’t yet clear if the biometric boarding systems will be linked to Aadhaar, the national biometric ID program that continues to expand across various aspects of Indian society, but the prevalence of Aadhaar has certainly contributed to establishing a solid regulatory and cultural context for the emergence of biometric airport screening. The development also lines up with international trends, with airport authorities in the US in particular moving quickly to develop and implement biometric boarding systems.

Source: The Times of India

–

September 25, 2018 – by Alex Perala