Automated face recognition speeds up plane boarding

In the trial, which ended on March 25, passengers travelling with South African Airways were invited to use so-called self-boarding through an e-gate controlled by the Passenger Authentication Scanning System (PASS).

Developed by Atkins and HAL, PASS uses Aurora’s infra-red facial recognition technology to capture passengers’ biometric data , ensuring that the person who checked-in is the person who boards the plane.

In use, passengers reaching the ‘self-boarding’ gate pass through an automatic electronic barrier which takes an infrared scan of their face.

This information is checked against the biometric data that was taken at the check-in stage.

When the two sets of data scans are successfully matched, the barrier opens and the passenger can pass through and board their flight.

The technology means that a passenger’s identity needs to be checked by airline staff only once, reducing the time it takes for passengers to get to their seats and eliminating the likelihood of passengers successfully swapping their boarding passes for the purposes of migrating illegally.