SITA Publishes White Paper on Role of Biometrics in Air Travel

Dark/Light Mode (05/04/24)  SITA has published a white paper that highlights how the surge in air travel places extraordinary pressure on airports, national borders and airline resources, and suggests that the “existing paper-based and manual travel infrastructure and legacy processes simply won’t be able to cope”.

In 1930, only around 6,000 passengers travelled by air. By 1934, this had risen to just under 500,000. Fast-forward to 2019 and it had exploded to 4 billion travelers and IATA has forecast that 8 billion people will travel by air annually by 2040.

To prepare for this, there are hundreds of new airports being built and major construction projects underway at existing airports around the world. However, bricks and mortar infrastructure is only part of the solution as without state-of-the-art, adaptable digital solutions, airlines and airports will struggle to manage passenger numbers.

SITA boarding gate at DMK in Bangkok, Thailand. Picture by Steven Howard of TravelNewsAsia.com

SITA believes that the solution involves harnessing the power of facial and fingerprint biometrics to create a smoother and safer air transport experience.

The white paper takes us behind the scenes by showcasing successful case studies such as the Star Alliance Biometric initiative and the Indian government’s DigiYatra program. Both cases use the end-to-end biometric passenger processing solution SITA Smart Path.

“SITA Smart Path biometrically enables every step of the passenger journey, from mobile enrollment to aircraft boarding and every point in between and beyond,” said Stefan Schaffner, VP of Airports at SITA. “With facial recognition across as many airport touch points as you need, it lets passengers manage their identity across their whole journey, in a unique and touchless way. The final result is a radically improved travel experience.”

The white paper goes on to outline how other solutions use advanced biometrics technology, including SITA Flex - a common-use passenger processing platform, and SITA Border Management - which covers border control, risk intelligence, and travel authorization. Both solutions are already used by more than 40 airports globally.

The white paper also breaks down SITA’s Digital Travel Credentials (DTC) solution, a hotly anticipated verifiable digital identity shared before arrival (with the passenger’s consent) for seamless border crossing.

As a member of both the IATA’s One ID initiative and the International Civil Aviation Organization’s DTC, SITA is doing extensive work on border-grade DTCs and is helping define rigorous standards around passenger identity management within biometrics.

An example of this is how SITA DTCs were used to create Aruba’s Happy One Pass, a collaboration which enables passengers arriving at the Caribbean island nation of Aruba to “disembark at international arrivals and cross the border without stopping or even showing a travel document”.

The white paper's release, along with its case studies and insights, reveals that the future of travel isn't some distant concept anymore, it's happening now.

The 41-page, 3.38 MB white paper can be downloaded in .pdf format free of charge from SITA's website, here.

Latest exclusive video interviews: Future of Air Travel - Interview with Sumesh Patel, President of SITA Asia Pacific; Miss International Queen 2024 (MIQ 2024) - Interview with Alisa Phanthusak, MD, Tiffany's Show Pattaya, Thailand; 16 HD Video Interviews from Routes Europe 2024 in Aarhus, Denmark; 9 HD Video Interviews from Routes Asia 2024 in Langkawi, Malaysia; Standard to Open Residences in Hua Hin and Phuket, Thailand; Video Interview with Amar Lalvani, Executive Chairman; 9 Exclusive Video Interviews from ASEAN Tourism Forum 2024 in Vientiane, Laos; 8 NTO Press Conferences from ASEAN Tourism Forum 2024 in Vientiane, Laos; 13 HD Video Interviews from World Travel Market 2023 in London, England; 5 HD Video Interviews from APG World Connect 2023 in Monaco, France; and 15 HD Video Interviews from Routes World 2023 in Istanbul, Türkiye.