The race to become the world’s first document-free airport

By Ana DeOliva, CNN

(CNN) — Imagine boarding a flight without showing your passport, ID or ticket even once at the airport.

By 2025, that might be the case at Abu Dhabi’s Zayed International Airport.

The airport is known for its hi-tech infrastructure and was recently praised by entrepreneur Elon Musk with the words “US needs to catch up.”

Now it is launching its Smart Travel Project, which aims to install biometric sensors in every identification checkpoint of the airport, from check-in counters to immigration booths, duty-free tills, airline lounges and boarding gates.

Biometrics are the biological measurements that identify us as individuals. The sensors mean that at any point where a document is required for access, the passenger’s identity and travel status can be verified by facial or iris recognition.

The novelty

In Abu Dhabi, the technology is already in use at certain sections of the airport, particularly on flights operated by its partner airline Etihad. Yet its ambition to expand across the entire passenger flow is a breakthrough.

“We’re expanding to nine touchpoints and this would be a world first,” says Andrew Murphy, the chief information officer at Abu Dhabi Airport.

“It’s designed with no pre-enrollment required, passengers are automatically recognized and authenticated as they move through the airport, significantly speeding up the entire process.”

Murphy explains that anyone who arrives for the first time in the United Arab Emirates, be it residents or tourists, has their biometrics collected at immigration by the Federal Authority for Identity, Citizenship, Customs & Port Security (ICP).

The airport’s system taps into this database to verify passengers as they pass through checkpoints.

“Where the real unique nature comes in is that this particular biometric solution here is to partner with ICP to utilize that data in order to make this passenger experience seamless. And that’s why everybody can use it,” he explains.

Murphy says that the purpose is to ease the flow of passengers, making transit much quicker. The initial implementation has proven the case, so far.

“People are reporting going from the curb into the retail area or to the gate in less than 15 minutes and when you consider that this is a huge facility, […] capable of processing 45 million passengers, to be able to move through an airport of that size in just a matter of minutes is really groundbreaking,” he claims.

Option to opt out

In an October 2023 survey by the International Air Transport Association (IATA), 75% of passengers claimed they would prefer using biometric data over paper passports and boarding passes.

For the remaining 25% of people, who might feel uncomfortable with the technology or prefer human interactions, Murphy says that going through a more traditional verification passenger will remain an option.

Giving passengers a choice to go through facial recognition or not is backed by international policymakers, especially when it concerns those who are not used to transiting an airport.

“If someone’s only traveling once every two or three years, which is the case for many, many, many people, then in fact they might prefer a human interaction to give them guidance,” says Louise Cole, head of customer experience and facilitation for IATA.

“I think that the human touch, it does come down to personal choice, and it’s giving customers a choice that reflects what we have in other environments,” she adds.

Plus, if you’re travelling with young kids, showing paperwork to a staff member is still a requirement, although the age cutoff might vary from airport to airport.

“We keep the system reserved for people age 12 and above because we find that with younger kids […] their facial features change quite rapidly,” Murphy explains.

It could also be a matter of compliance with global guidelines and policy.

“There are other aspects of international travel involving children for which it may not be appropriate to use biometrics,” says Cole. “You need to ensure that the child is travelling with the appropriate caregiver,” she says.

Global competition

Other airports around the world are also relying less on paper and more on biometrics.

In the October 2023 report by IATA, 46% of respondents said they had used the technology at an airport before.

However no airport is officially considered to be passport-free.

“I know there are lots of intentions to be able to get to that fully contactless biometric experience,” says Cole, “but one of the reasons the industry is so behind is that it’s hard to imagine any other consumer process that you go through where you have to stop and prove something again and again and again.”

Yet, there are some examples of progress, worldwide.

Singapore’s Changi Airport is one of the leaders in implementing the technology. Like Abu Dhabi, it has also partnered with its government’s immigration authority to develop a biometric clearance accessible by both residents and tourists. The system will be implemented progressively, starting this month.

Hong Kong International Airport, Tokyo Narita, Tokyo Haneda and Delhi’s Indira Gandhi International have also launched biometric terminals at certain point during transit.

The dedication of Middle Eastern and Asia-Pacific airports puts them as frontrunners, according to Cole.

“These regions are setting the standard for biometric integration in air travel,” she says.

European airports are making significant strides too.

Last year, IATA partnered with British Airways to trial the first fully integrated digital identity international flight.

Taking off in Heathrow and landing in Rome Fiumicino, a test passenger flew only with their digital identity, known as W3C Verifiable Credential. Their passport, visa and e-ticket were stored in a digital wallet, all verified by biometric recognition.

In the US, the Customs and Border Protection has implemented biometrics at the arrival zones of all of its 96 international airports, with fifty-three locations also having the technology available at departure.

One world, one paperless solution

For Cole, ensuring that all trials and technologies are aligned is crucial to efficiency and safety.

She explains, “The benefits of a great customer experience in one airport could be lost if the next airport that passenger goes to has an entirely different way of approaching it.”

The key, still according to Cole, is standardization and international cooperation.

“Being able to use a single digital identity at multiple airports and with multiple airlines means you’ll get a better customer experience overall, [while] keeping the privacy components at the core and handling the data.”

As airports such as Abu Dhabi extend their use of biometric technology, they could set the benchmark for other transit zones to follow, paving the way to document-free travel.

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