How can airports streamline traveller check-in to manage the growing number of travellers, while maintaining a high level of security? Nicole Palumbo, Sales Operations Manager, FST Biometrics explains where the bottlenecks are and how they can be avoided.
When a traveler reaches the airport today, he is immediately confronted by swarms of airport staff, other travelers, airline personnel and others. The traveler maneuvers his way through the crowds, finds the appropriate counter to check in, and stands in line. And then he waits.
At the counter, the traveler will present his passport and receive a boarding card. The passport and boarding card then serve as "identification token" through the remainder of the airport experience. While the airline employee at the desk now knows who this traveler is, the traveler will need to continuously verify his identity when confronted with each additional stakeholder during his journey through the airport.
The next stop is security. In the United States, the TSA is responsible for verifying and checking each traveler. Again, the traveler stands in line and waits to approach the TSA agent responsible for checking the passport and boarding card, and for comparing the face and name on these identification tokens with the person standing in line. Once the person is identified, he then goes through the security check, has his carry-on bag checked, and moves on to the next step.
Once a passenger completes the TSA process, he then continues to the next stakeholder at border control. In some airports, travelers have the option to use a biometric check. Those registered with biometric passports in the system can approach the biometric checkpoint, place their passport on the scanner, and be verified by facial recognition or fingerprint, though this process still requires the traveler to be registered in the system. Travelers not enrolled in the biometric system must again line up to have their identities verified by the border agent…
