Biometrics goes bigtime at airports

After the global shock to air travel in 2020, investment in IT by airlines and airports just about returned to growth in 2021 and now looks set for cautious growth in 2022 and stronger growth up to 2024, according to the Air Transport IT Insights-2021 report by aviation communications and IT giant SITA.

- 

While there are plenty of opportunities for verification and biometric companies, the industry responses show that the aviation sector sees health passes as remaining part of travel until at least the end of the timeframe in question, 2024.

Here are some key insights:

• There will be urgent investment in passenger health certificate verification (sorting out the mess of health certificate checking is seen as urgent. While 81 percent of airlines are currently conducting manual checks of passenger health certificates by staff, by the end of 2024, 84 percent plan to be doing this via a mobile app (up from 33 percent in 2021) and 49 percent with kiosks, a leap from the current 4 percent).

• Further digitisation of journey touchpoints are expected to create a more streamlined and potentially more standardised experience.

• Biometric boarding to go mainstream.