Abstract
Beijing Capital International Airport (BCIA) – the busiest airport in China and the second busiest in the world – has automated the entire passenger ‘journey’ using SITA's Smart Path facial recognition system.
Biometrics now control the entire passenger ‘journey’ at Beijing Airport.
BCIA has installed around 600 biometric checkpoints across the airport, including 250 lanes of automatic gates, 80 kiosks and 30 self-bag drop stations to passengers from international flights. Smart Path is installed at multiple checkpoints including manual check-in, self-service check-in, bag drop, restricted access, security and boarding.
As a result, passengers can now enrol once, then pass through the whole process from check-in to boarding. The technology can manage over 400 passengers boarding an aircraft in less than 20 minutes. SITA said this improved efficiency means shorter queuing time and more social distancing for passengers. The process is also contactless, with no need to touch any airport equipment, reducing the risk of Covid-19 infection.
SITA, which specialises in providing technology for the air transport industry, says BCIA is its most extensive biometric deployment to date. The airport handled more than 100 million passengers between 2018 and 2020.
Sumesh Patel, SITA's APAC region president, said: “BCIA signposts growing interest from the market to automate airport operations through smart technology. Automation is more important than ever in this Covid-19 environment to better enable social distancing and passenger flow.”
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SITA and NEC have agreed a global aviation partnership. They plan to combine NEC's I:Delight identity management system with SITA Smart Path and SITA Flex, enabling air passengers to use their digital biometric identity on their mobile phone to move from check-in to boarding.