Spain’s national airports authority AENA is part of a consortium including Iberia, Inetum, and Thales, carrying out an innovation project to find new ways to operate in the air travel industry with health measures to fight COVID-19.
The proposed project uses biometrics to identify passengers using mobile devices. It aims to provide a smooth airport experience while drastically reducing physical contact, to further enhance the safety of all airport procedures.
The use of tablets also makes the solution mobile and flexible, meaning that a limited number of units will be sufficient to deal with a large number of flights to different destinations. In addition, Thales says the system boasts improved detection capabilities, making it possible to identify passengers even when wearing face masks.
The initiative is being supported by the CDTI, Spain’s industrial technology development agency, through a research and development cooperation program, thus contributing to the improvement of the technological level and digital transformation of Spanish enterprises via the development of innovative ideas.
This R&D program complies with the new measures of contactless security. It will be built around the facial recognition pilot running at the Adolfo Suarez Madrid-Barajas Airport and will serve in the development of new features. They will be integrated into a single process using a dedicated application as well as new security and boarding controls.
