Face recognition to replace boarding passes at Berlin airport

Source: Schengen Visa Info

Berlin Brandenburg Airport has introduced a new digital service for biometric access control, making it easier for travelers to go through the controls.

Announcing the news, Berlin Brandenburg Airport said that the digital service enables access for travelers to certain processors at the airport through biometric face recognition without the need to show any documents.

The same highlighted that this project is in a testing phase in cooperation with the Lufthansa Group as well as the technology parent FastID.

“The digital service BER Traveler enables access to certain processors at the airport via biometric face recognition and completely “hands-free” without the need to show documents. The project is being offered in a test phase at BER together with the Lufthansa Group, and the technology partner FastID,” the statement of Berlin Brandenburg Airport reads.

Effective immediately, Lufthansa, Austrian Airlines, Swiss, Brussels Airlines, and Eurowings’ Senators and HON Circle Members can now enjoy the new services at the airport.

Passengers previously had to present their boarding passes to get to the priority lane of the security control. However, in line with the newly made introduction, passengers can now have fast access to priority security through a separate lane using facial recognition.

Commenting on the move, the Managing Director and Chief Operating Officer of Berlin Brandenburg Airport, Thomas Hoff Anderson, said that they are happy to be cooperating with Lufthansa Group to facilitate the procedures.

“We are pleased to have persuaded the Lufthansa Group, one of our most important customers, of the great potential of facial recognition for smarter passenger processes at BER. This is a good basis for being able to offer the new “BER Traveller” product to other airlines’ passengers as well,” the statement of Anderson reads.

As Berlin Brandenburg Airport explains, in the first phase, the service will only enable access to the priority lane. However, next, it will also be able to use self-check-in machines via facial recognition.

“If the test phase is successful, the function can be extended to other process points at BER,” Berlin Brandenburg Airport highlighted.

The use of the new biometric service that Berlin Brandenburg Airport is offering is voluntary. All those interested need to register via an app from the provider FastID, where their biometrics, as well as personal data, will be stored.

Passengers who register on the app have the opportunity to decide before each journey if they want to use the service for the next flight. Only then will the data be transmitted, and after the flight, all the data will be deleted from FastID and will remain only on the passenger’s app.

This means that passengers have full control over their data on the app, and they can delete them completely at any time.