British Airways now using facial recognition biometrics at 4 U.S. airports

Airline now trialling biometrics for boarding at Orlando International

British Airways has started a trial using facial recognition biometrics for boarding passengers at Orlando International Airport.

The biometric boarding gates remove the need for passengers to present their boarding pass and passport at the departure gate.

They look into a camera before boarding, wait for their biometric data to be verified, and board the aircraft. ­

Two biometric eGates have been installed at Orlando and during the trial, British Airways passengers flying on the daily BA2036 flight to Gatwick are able to use the new system. Customer service agents will still be on hand to help passengers during boarding should they require it.

British Airways started using facial recognition for boarding passengers at Los Angeles in November 2017.

The airline has been using biometrics for boarding on its domestic UK flights from its hub at Heathrow’s Terminal 5.

The technology for the biometric boarding trial comes from SITA.

Facial recognition on U.S. arrivals

Meanwhile, passengers on select British Airways flights from Heathrow to Miami and New York, JFK are benefiting from a similar biometric trial, but this time when they arrive in the US.

The system uses facial recognition technology to verify a passenger’s identity and this automatically links the customer to any records already held in the U.S. CBP systems. This process means that there is no need for travel documents to be swiped or passengers to go through fingerprinting. The aim is to reduce the time passengers spend in arrivals queues.

N.B. Image credit: British Airways

Companies in this story

British Airways (BA)

CBP

SITA Border Management