Amsterdam’s Schiphol airport and Dutch carrier KLM have started a ‘biometric boarding’ trial, allowing passengers to board their flight without showing either their boarding pass or passport at the gate.
The trial is taking place at a selected gate at the airport, and eligible passengers will be required to register for the initiative at a special kiosk in the waiting area at the gate, where they will scan their face, passport and boarding pass.
These passengers will then be able to board their flight “quickly and easily via a separate gate that identifies passengers using facial recognition”.
The trial will last at least three months, and the airport stresses that all personal data will be deleted after boarding to ensure privacy.
Schiphol and KLM says they are “assessing facial recognition technology with this trial, testing the speed, reliability and user-friendliness of the system”.
The airport is also currently trialling a new hand baggage scanner which allows passengers to leave laptops and liquids in their bags, and says that its ambition is to become the ‘Leading Digital Airport’ in 2018.
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