Waiting in a physical line is becoming increasingly rare. Restaurants have digital reservation systems, and grocery stores use self-service desks. Concert tickets, cars, laptops, and almost anything else we can purchase online. It feels like waiting in a line is over.
But then you go to the airport. The abundance of long lines is striking. It’s a strong contrast from the customer experience everywhere else. All major airports in the world have embraced high-security standards, and it’s usually the culprit behind all the queues.
Can’t we create a check-in process that is both fast and secure?
Promising Trends
Anyone who follows aviation news at least sparingly will know that many pilot studies and tests have already been performed in various airports worldwide. For example, the Dublin airport was one of the first in the world to conduct a test of providing a select number of visitors to try out the possibility of check-in that would not involve any people.
It worked like this. You simply add your passport to the scanner, and it automatically picks up your identity. At the same time, a camera standing in front of you captures your face and checks whether it’s really you.
If such a Traveller Verification Service (TVS) establishes your identity, it can also check for your luggage, tickets, flight time, and everything else. If all is in order, you won’t even need to talk to a person. You can go straight to the plane.
The implementation of such verification systems is closer than you might think. Many airports in the United States are already using such systems, and Singapore has announced plans to implement them fully in the first quarter of 2024.
Even more significantly, the United Nations passed a resolution in 2017 that encourages countries worldwide to collect biometric data from their citizens. One of the main reasons mentioned in the resolution is to ensure the safety of aviation. Such a process establishes the creation of digital identity,
Problems of Digital Identity
A common problem raised for biometric identification, commonly raised by various privacy groups, is the need to keep all personal data on the internet or, at least, in databases. It raises a twofold problem.
Some people, due to technological illiteracy, lack of resources, or both, might not be able to create and control their digital identities. Complete reliance on technological factors to identify people would discriminate against vulnerable groups. In the case of airports, by restricting their freedom of movement.
Another problem related to biometric identification and digital identity is the over-reliance on technology. Even if we supply every person on earth with a smartphone and an internet connection, technology is not reliable enough. It might make mistakes, get infiltrated by malware, or not work fast enough.
A suddenly lost internet connection, even without full biometric identification, is detrimental to an airport. Imagine if an airport that fully relies on all security checks would lose its internet connection. This would completely prevent the proper functioning of such critical infrastructure objects.
Of course, using biometric identification methods doesn’t mean it will become impossible for a customs officer to look into your passport and identify you. The problem is that if these technologies catch up with the demand, there will be fewer and fewer customs officers to physically check the passports.
The same problem, just on a different level, is already happening in supermarkets. If, during a rush hour, all self-service checkout points start malfunctioning, most supermarkets simply don’t have enough staff currently working to keep up with physical checkout. Even worse, traditional checkout points might not be available at all.
But a grocery store is a fully for-profit business, and customers can simply go to another store. The functioning of some airports is critical for some regions, and countries. An insecure or inefficient airport creates many more risks. It simply has to function well, as there might not be any other alternative.
The Numbers Speak For Themselves
However, the problems of digital identity and the seeming over-reliance on technology are more just an individual experience rather than a statistical fact. Even if it is frustrating once you are the one who gets into a situation with technical difficulties.
A look into statistics will make even the biggest skeptic acknowledge that biometrics solves more problems than it creates. For starters, staff shortages are the main reason why airports started to test and implement facial recognition and other biometric systems. A study conducted by the United States Department of Homeland Security has proven this with a survey.
A paper in The International Journal of Information Management Data Insights reports even more convincing data. A team of data scientists has followed the mentioned biometric identification trials in the Dublin Airport and in smaller instances across the airports in the US.
It reports that the full biometric confirmation rate (without a pre-built picture gallery) was able to reach more than 82 percent accuracy. Technical confirmation (with the use of a pre-made picture gallery) successfully identified passengers more than 97 percent of the time.
Of course, critics of the said paper have argued that the number of passengers in these trials was quite small and is not representative of the variety of passengers that the identification systems will have to deal with in ordinary scenarios.
However, it is not needed that the biometric identification systems would function 100 percent of the time for all passengers. The systems can be implemented only for a small amount of people. Starting with the crew and airport personnel is a great way to build databases.
Databases are crucial for the success of these systems. Combining large databases with AI can help us to make them better and prepare them for dealing with real passengers.
Conclusion
It’s only a matter of time before biometric identification and a passport-free future will come to all the airports. The benefits are clear from the statistics, and our digital identities can already replace physical passports.