Spain is spearheading the introduction of the first facial recognition pilot project in Europe, thanks to airport operator Aena and Air Europa’s collaboration.

Biometric technology will speed-up boarding area control, identification and access processes.

Biometric identification technology streamlines airport passenger movement by facilitating free, faster, safer and more efficient transit.

This technological breakthrough aims at simplifying boarding procedures, until now an enormously tedious process compared to other forms of transport such as trains and buses.

Passengers who voluntarily opt for biometric boarding will be able to pass security checkpoints and boarding gates without having to show their boarding pass or ID.

The airport chosen to carry out this pilot project is Menorca, where Air Europa passengers wanting to try out this system will be able to do so by means of a simple procedure in process until the pilot project, initially scheduled for one year, ends.

The facial recognition system involves a document scanner and camera to photograph the passenger, enabling their features to be contrasted with the image on the scanned document.

If they match, the passenger will be able to go through both the security checkpoint and boarding gate without having to show their travel documents and ID again, although they should always have them to hand.

Needless to say, any passengers who do not want to make use of this facial recognition system may proceed as before, by showing their boarding pass and ID.

Facial biometric boarding has been facilitated by the joint collaboration of Aena; Air Europa and GroundForce, both belonging to the Globalia Group, along with Everis Aerospace & Defence and Dormakaba.