The air travel industry is booming. Record passenger demand is pushing airport capacity to the limit. To cope the industry needs a way to process travellers faster, more securely and in a way which improves the entire experience.
The adoption of end-to-end passenger experience and identity management solutions based on self-service procedures and biometric technologies for passenger identification is successfully answering the challenge, and Vision-Box is at the heart of this strategy, with solutions implemented in more than 50 international airports.
With 20 years’ experience in the market, Vision-Box is helping airports around the world to improve passenger processing and is already anticipating the future, with the definition of an end-to-end solution that will transform the passenger journey into a sequence of user-centric self-service touch points, from check-in to boarding the aircraft.
A contactless process for the passenger is behind Happy Flow, the pioneering concept which adopts biometrics as the main passenger identification token in an airport, replacing manual control and multiple document verification, such as passport, ID card or boarding pass.
The concept will be implemented at Aruba International Airport, in the Dutch Caribbean, in an initiative gathering relevant stakeholders, and it will reshape the future of identification processes and passenger experience, acting as a reference in airports worldwide in the coming years.
Happy Flow guarantees to eliminate queues, improve security, speed up processing times and ensure holiday makers flow through the terminal with the least possible stress
With Vision-Box face-recognition technology, passengers will have their identity assessed at check-in in a self-service kiosk. After that, they will be able to cross every control stage (self-service biometric baggage drop, immigration eGates and self-boarding eGates) quickly and comfortably, simply looking at facial-recognition cameras.
Everyone in the airport ecosystem will benefit – the airport, airline, border control authorities and passengers – while Happy Flow guarantees to eliminate queues, improve security, speed up processing times and ensure holiday makers flow through the terminal with the least possible stress.
In recent years, Vision-Box’s unparalleled experience of deploying automated border control (ABC) solutions has included the largest-ever installation in Europe, involving more than 150 eGates at the UK’s largest airports.
Vision-Box is helping airports around the world to improve passenger processing
Glasgow, Heathrow, Manchester, London Stansted and Edinburgh are some of the airports using Vision-Box eGates to perform the authentication of ePassports and facial recognition in compliance with document and government watch lists. The UK’s Border Force is using ePassport gates to process passengers using facial recognition more than any other national border agency in the world.
The lengthy immigration processes in the United States are also being optimised with the adoption of automated passport control solutions. Some 300 kiosks are speeding up processes across some of the main international airports, having in some cases cut waiting times by 70 per cent.
Other examples of Vision-Box airport projects include the world’s largest number of multi-biometric ABC eGates at Qatar’s new Hamad International Airport in Doha and a nationwide roll-out in Australia of ABC eGates to guarantee accuracy in the identification of passengers before their international departure.
Fulfilling the best outcomes in line with industry standards, Vision-Box works with recognised international organisations, such as Frontex and the International Air Transport Association, to help draw up solutions to integrate with initiatives, including implementation of Smart Borders, Entry and Exit, Registered Traveller Programme, Advance Passenger Information System and Pre-clearance, which are underway and will be operational in the near future.
The future implementation of Smart Borders is one of the major improvements foreseen in Europe. Recently, the first out of 14 different European Smart Borders pilots was launched at Lisbon International Airport. Co-ordinated by eu-LISA (European agency for the operational management of large-scale IT systems in the area of freedom, security and justice), the Smart Borders initiative relies on the participation of 12 member states to conduct tests with third-country nationals at specific border-crossing points on a limited set of technical options to validate solutions and concepts.
Vision-Box will contribute by driving the technology assessment at some of these locations, with the implementation of biometric solutions using facial image, fingerprints and iris, but also on the processes using ABC eGates and kiosks to improve security, while facilitating passenger flow. Results of the project will establish some of the foundations for a common, standardised platform to manage the Schengen agreement of 26 European countries that have abolished passport and any other types of control at their common borders.
Vision-Box has developed an integrated global solution to address these challenges: the vb i-shield®, a powerful IT software suite, enables the implementation of an advanced management solution, integrating ABC, security check-point and boarding gates, self-service biometric check-in kiosks and baggage drop units, with advanced digital video management solutions (with intelligent biometric and biographic search engines). This platform enables an overview of the security infrastructure, a person’s identity, or his or her stage within the airport journey, as well as flow management, with unlimited scalability.
Additionally, this platform makes possible a cross-match of information and critical data with other platforms of international security organisations, always with data protection in mind, through a privacy-by-design framework.
Outside the airport, Vision-Box has also adopted a holistic approach to identity management, addressing the global challenges of security and people identification: the end-to-end eID Chain of Trust. Starting with a reliable biometric and biographic enrolment of a citizen, the company guarantees a dependable self-service document delivery and an optimised identification in any control point such as a border crossing. On top of all high-quality user-centric interfaces for citizens and operators, a powerful management solution integrates the whole identity chain.
Headquartered in Portugal, Vision-Box has established sales subsidiaries in the UK, Germany, the Netherlands, Brazil, United States, UAE, Hong Kong and Australia. Its solutions now process around 80 million passengers a year.
To learn more visit Vision-Box.com
