After months of experiments – and a stop caused by the outbreak of the pandemic – “FaceBoarding” officially takes off at Milan Linate airport, the service that allows passengers who want to use only their face as a pass to access security checks and to board the plane directly from the gate.
The initiative
The service made available by Sea, the company that manages the Milan city airport and Malpensa, is based on the biometric processing system (developed by Thales) and dedicated gates (created by Dormakba): together the infrastructure is able to identify the subject and to authorize passage from the security gates onwards.
System available to all
The biometric facial recognition system – specifies Sea – “is available to all airlines that want to integrate their check-in and boarding systems with the FaceBoarding system”. The first to join the initiative are the Italian Ita Airways and the Scandinavian SAS which were also involved in the various experiments.
The two recordings
But how does it work? Travelers who want to use this service must register previously either at the kiosks at Linate or through an application to download onto their smartphone and which will be available from next month. Registrations will be of two types: one annual, the other specific to the flight you intend to take.
The stages
In more detail: once you have checked in (via mobile phone or at the counter) – and while waiting for the app – you must go to one of the kiosks to register. After giving consent to the processing of personal data, you must register your identity document (passport or electronic card) by placing it on the optical reader, then you must repeat the procedure with your boarding pass. Then you need to have the flight recorded by looking into the camera in front. Then you can proceed towards the dedicated lanes until boarding.
The advantages
Once registered, it will no longer be necessary to show travel documents (such as an identity card or airline ticket) at the turnstiles preceding the security gates (i.e. metal detectors and hand luggage scanners) and at the time of check-in. boarding at the gate. The system, in fact, identifies the individual’s face as already in the database and therefore authorized to fly.
The “classic” system
Since membership is voluntary, this path – developed in collaboration with the National Civil Aviation Authority and the State Police – will complement the classic one. With the advantage that in this way control times are significantly reduced, particularly for those who often arrive close to flight departure.
The test
The experimentation ended on February 19th. It began in the first weeks of 2020 (when Alitalia replaced Ita), but then it was stopped for several months in conjunction with the travel ban and lockdowns caused by the pandemic. During the test period, FaceBoarding was used on two routes: Linate-Rome Fiumicino (with Ita Airways) and Linate-Stockholm (with Sas) using an electronic document (passport or electronic identity card) for registration.
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May 7, 2024 (modified May 7, 2024 | 4:39 pm)
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