SITA has announced its most extensive biometric deployment to date with a new completely contactless experience for passengers traveling through Beijing Capital International Airport (BCIA).
As the busiest airport in China and the second busiest in the world, BCIA has completely automated the entire passenger journey using SITA technology – from check-in and bag drop through to immigration, security and finally boarding. Passengers only need to enroll once during check-in, then experience a seamless journey through the airport enabled by facial recognition. Improved processing efficiency means shorter queuing time and more social distancing for all passengers. An added benefit during the COVID-19 era is that the process removes the need to touch any airport equipment, reducing the risk of infection.
The SITA Smart Path system is able to process over 400 passengers boarding an Airbus A380 in less than 20 minutes. Beyond passenger processing, SITA Smart Path also enables hands-free and touchless Duty-Free payment, removing the need to retrieve and show a boarding pass at check out.
The BCIA deployment included the implementation of over 600 biometric checkpoints through the airport including 250 lanes of automatic gates, 80 kiosks, and 30 self-bag drop stations which will process passengers from international flights. The biometric technology is currently activated across multiple checkpoints at the airport including manual check-in, self-service check-in, bag drop, restricted access, security and boarding.
