Facial recognition to be trialled at Bristol and Dublin airports

The SelfPass technology, developed by United Technologies Corporation subsidiary Collins Aerospace, verifies a passenger’s identity at the first touch point in an airport, whether that be check-in, bag-drop or security. From that point onwards, the passenger’s face acts as their identification and boarding pass as they journey through the airport, negating the need to provide the documents at duty free, airport lounges, border control or at the plane's boarding gate. It is not clear for how long the biometric data is stored for, or if passengers can later have their facial recognition profile erased.

“Dublin and Bristol Airports are changing the way passengers travel and making the process easier and more efficient,” said Christopher Forrest, vice president of Global Airport Systems for Collins Aerospace.

“For example, it takes less than one second to capture and process a passenger’s facial image and eliminates the need to repeatedly present travel documents. We see this as another leap forward for our biometric technology to play a key role in making the connected aviation ecosystem a reality.”