Biometric initiatives are becoming increasingly common at airports in the U.S. and around the world, a trend that could soon accelerate.
During the first half of next year, the World Travel & Tourism Council (WTTC) hopes to produce a trial project in which participants would experience a seamless biometric journey that stretches beyond airports to their rental car pick-up, hotel, and even their cruise ship.
"The basic principle is that there are many parts of the travel chain that are considering how biometric technology can help to increase security and passenger efficiency," WTTC director of industry affairs Helena Bononi wrote in an email. "Everyone is doing something; no one is doing everything. The role of the WTTC is to bring everyone together to work out exactly how it can all come together."
As the WTTC develops what it is calling its Seamless Traveler Journey initiative, the organization will work with American Airlines, Dallas/Fort Worth Airport (DFW), the TSA and U.S. Customs & Border Protection to move flyers through the airport and onto their flights with only one biometric touch point.
The trial will be used on flights between Dallas and London Heathrow, said DFW's CEO, Sean Donohue. On both legs of the journey, flyers who opt in to the trial would submit to a biometric identity verification through facial recognition at the check-in kiosk, then go hands-free all the way to the plane. Those passengers won't have to display a boarding pass or passport at bag check, security or the boarding gate. They'd also stay hands-free at the end of the flight upon entry into the U.S. or U.K., Donohue explained.
Such a biometric journey, while still quite rare, is not unheard of. The first end-to-end airport biometric trial debuted on flights between Aruba and Amsterdam in 2015.
Notably, Delta will enable the U.S.'s first fully biometric airport journey by Dec. 1 on flights out of its Atlanta hub, Hartsfield-Jackson Airport. Along with Heathrow, other airports that have end-to-end biometric projects in the works include Dubai and India's Bangalore.
But what is to set the WTTC trial apart is that the biometric trial is also to include the participation of Hertz, Hilton and MSC Cruises. As such, trial participants' single-touch-point journey would extend to their car rental pickup, hotel check-in and cruise check-in.
Donohue said the key goal of the trial is to foster methods that will enable more biometric integrations that reach outward from airports to other players in the travel journey.
"We're not doing this just for the participants," he said. "We're doing this so we can collect data. We are doing this for some justification so that we can encourage it to spread quicker."
In the WTTC's role as facilitator for the Seamless Traveler Journey pilot, WTTC communications adviser Toby Nicol said, the organization's duty is to identify a framework that will enable Hertz, MSC and Hilton to work with the airports and government agencies.
Nicol said precise details of the trial haven't been worked out yet. One key issue is to make sure that the various parties receive only the minimum necessary biometric information about each individual.
For example, he said, an airline might have your flight information or whether you've ordered a halal meal, but the car rental agency wouldn't need that. In contrast, the airport wouldn't need to know where you are staying during a trip, though the hotel would obviously need such information.
Simply put, Nicol said, the various parties will need the proper information to confirm one's identity biometrically but not enough to create privacy concerns.
As far as the functionality of the pilot program, Nicol said, participants should be able to go through the airport, collect a rental car, check into a hotel and board a cruise via facial recognition, all through a singular biometric enrollment.