Berlin-Brandenburg Airport has announced a new digital biometric passenger identification service that will replace boarding passes and simplify the check-in process. The project has been launched in test mode for Lufthansa airline customers who are entitled to priority boarding on flights.
Berlin-Brandenburg Airport officials said that using a biometric facial recognition system will allow travelers to go through certain procedures at the airport without needing to present any documents. The service, named BER Traveler, is at the testing stage in cooperation with the Lufthansa Group of airlines, as well as the creators of the FastID technology.
Customers of Lufthansa, Austrian Airlines, Swiss, Brussels Airlines, and Eurowings with Senator and HON Circle status will already have access to the new service at Berlin-Brandenburg Airport. Previously, they had to present their boarding passes to enter the priority security control lane. However, after the introduction of the new system, there will be fast access through a separate lane using the facial recognition system.
Commenting on the innovation, Managing Director and COO of Berlin-Brandenburg Airport, Thomas Hoff Anderson, said: “We are delighted to have convinced the Lufthansa Group, one of our most important customers, of the great potential of facial recognition to intelligent passenger service processes at our airport. This is a good base to offer the new product “BER Traveler” to passengers of other airlines.”
As Berlin-Brandenburg Airport explains, in the first phase the service will provide access only to priority boarding. However, in the future, with the help of the facial recognition system, it will be possible to pass the control at self-check-in counters for flights. “If the test phase is successful, the function can be extended to other points at the airport,” Berlin-Brandenburg said in a statement.
Use of the new biometric service is voluntary. All interested parties need to register in the application from the FastID provider, where their biometric data and personal data will be stored.
Passengers registered in the app can decide before each trip whether they want to use the service on a particular flight. Only after that, the data will be transferred, and after the flight – deleted from FastID, remaining only in the client’s application. This means that passengers will have full control over their data in the app and can completely delete it at any time.