Barcelona airport tests a passenger facial recognition program

The airport of Barcelona tests the future. This Wednesday he premiered his first biometric facial recognition system, which will allow passengers to register for the program check in your bags personally, as well as to board and overcome the Security controls no need to show documentation. The pilot program will be piloted over the next six months in the flights from Barcelona to Malaga operated by Vueling, one of the most popular domestic routes from The field. And it will be strictly voluntary. An experiment already partially tested in other airports that, according to AenaIt will be the first in Europe to integrate all the necessary procedures to get on the plane in a single biometric procedure.

“This procedure saves time. Do the process more agile and easy because you do not have to present the documentation once you have registered. It will also serve for reduce human interactionto in these times of covid, which could be important & rdquor ;, explains Calum Laming, Customer Director of Vueling. The 2:25 pm flight to Malaga was the first to launch the biometric system. Passengers who want to use it can register at the two kiosks installed by Aena in terminal 1. It is enough to present the ID card or passport, the boarding pass and look at the camera for a few seconds for the system to record the facial physiognomy of the passenger. Registration can also be done through a mobile application, which uses a photograph to archive biometric traits.

Saving time on boarding

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Aena had already started similar trials in Iberia flights from Barajas and of Air Europa departing from Menorca, but none of them allow passengers to self-check their bags without the help of an agent. “The Menorca pilot program has resulted in a significant reduction in shipping times, around 60%, so we expect savings to be higher at El Prat & rdquor ;, stated Amparo Brea, Aena’s Director of Innovation, Sustainability and Customer Experience.

It only remains to see how many passengers will embrace the new biometric system, which the airport manager intends to gradually introduce on the national routes with more traffic. The main dilemma facing the passenger has to do with the Privacy. Your biometric data will become the property of Aena, which will be its sole custodian. The public-private company insists that they will only be used for identification at airports and They will not be transferred to third parties or used for commercial purposes.