Scandinavian Airlines (SAS) Sverige has added its biometric fingerprint technology at Sweden”s two largest airports ” Stockholm-Arlanda and Gothenburg-Landvetter ” to make boarding quicker for passengers checking in baggage.
On domestic flights only, travellers can now provide fingerprints - on an electronic sensor - at check-in, and then simply press their finger to another machine when boarding instead of having to show a passport or ID card.
”Identifying yourselves by providing fingerprints will facilitate our customers” travel and is entirely voluntary since the use of ordinary ID documents is still an option,” said SAS Sverige commercial director, Susanne Dahlberg. ”Personal integrity is protected because the fingerprint is erased at the end of the flight.”
The airline introduced the system at all of its other domestic airports ” except Ornskoldsvik ” in December 2006, and a spokesman told ABTN it has been welcomed by business and leisure travellers.
”We have had a very positive feedback from customers and are happy to be able to have the same solution at Arlanda and Landvetter. These are our two most important airports ” 50% of our domestic flights are from Arlanda, and Landvetter is the second-largest,” he said.
”It is just for travellers checking in luggage, but it means they can go through automatic turnstyles when boarding rather than the manual desks, so it”s much quicker.”
The aim of the system is to make sure everyone checking in a bag does then board the aircraft.
SAS Sverige says it plans to make the technology available on its international routes, but has not mentioned a date.