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TECH BYTES June/July 2015 airportbusiness 29 Other countries have been quicker to adapt biometric technology, whether it be facial, iris or finger recognition; the three most common options today. From check-in, to bag drop, security and immigration, then final board- ing, biometric applications have widespread potential in airports. SITA's Head of Portfolio Management, Government and Security, Sean Farrell, agrees. He says the reason airlines and airports have been slow to jump on the biometrics' bandwag- on is because of the difficulty integrating these technologies with airline business processes and systems, "as well as passenger concerns about privacy and lack of industry standards governing how biometrics should be used." Chris Bidwell, vice president of Security and Facilitation at Airports Council International – North America (ACI-NA), compares biometrics to the increased availability and affordability of cell phones. As the technology became more popular in the market, the cost decreased. It was a natural transition, he says. "With biometrics I think we're in the same situation (as the cell phone trend) and in the fairly early stages of it," Bidwell says. He adds that it's not widespread yet in the United States, though some airports definitely do have biometrics capabilities. "They need something that is reliable, cost-effective and can be integrated with existing platforms at airports. These factors are important, and all have to be considered when looking at installing various biometric technologies," Bidwell says. ANOTHER LAYER OF SECURITY Terry Hartmann, vice president of Transportation with Unisys, explains that when used for bor- der security, biometrics provides immigration officials more time to verify identities of people entering the country, and takes the regular, self-verifying travelers off the table right away. Frequent travelers can use the Global Entry kiosk program of the U.S. Customs and Border Protection, which allows pre-approved, low-risk travelers to receive faster clearance upon arrival without needing to speak with a Customs and Border Protection officer. Forty-two airports and 12 pre-clearance locations were available in the United States as of December 2014, and nearly 2 million members were enrolled. Another security use for biometrics is simply geared toward airline/airport employees and other contractors moving from the unsecure to secure sides of the terminal. Hartmann says badge stealing is a real occurrence, and a fingerprint or iris scan provides an additional layer of security to the identification badges already in use. Farrell says that any system is dependent on the quality of vetting done at enrollment, and is why the airlines should look to build new processes around government-issued credentials such as e-Passports. "This approach also addresses the need for travel document verification and the integration of passenger risk assessment to further streamline passenger processes, particularly at security and the border crossing where passengers who are low risk and identifiable by their biometrics can be offered a truly differentiated experience," he concludes. A COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGE This is something every airport aims to give its passengers. T he US-VISIT program is by far the most extensive of all biometric airport in itiatives in the Un ited States, collecting both digital fingerprints and photos from foreign passport holders entering the country. But what about outside the national government? How can biometrics be useful in the daily operations of an airport and improve security, while enhancing the passenger experience? THE TOP TWO - PROS AND CONS SEAN Farrell, head of portfolio management, government and security at SITA, discusses the pros and cons of the fingerprint and face biometric technologies in use at airports today: FINGERPRINT f Pro: Fingerprints are relatively low-cost and easy to integrate. f Cons: Passengers must touch a sensor, which is not acceptable in some cultures. (Although newer technologies are contactless.) "Fingerprints also have the disadvantage that governments do not currently share the encryption keys with airlines that would allow use of the fingerprint data stored in newer generation passports because of privacy concerns," says Farrell. FACE f Pro: High accuracy can be achieved without the need for specialized lighting, or multiple or moving camera systems. "The advantage of face is the ability to match the live face against face data in passports, plus face biometrics are consider less sensitive from a passenger privacy perspective," he adds. f Con: Face capture can be time consuming if not implemented well, plus integration of face matching into airline self-service systems adds significant cost to the base systems.