With Delta Digital ID, PreCheck travelers can use their faces in lieu of boarding passes and ID at both bag drop and security at La Guardia and four other airports, including John F. Kennedy International Airport and Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport.
Facial recognition shaves more than a minute off bag drop, to roughly 30 seconds, and reduces the security interaction from 25 seconds to about 10 seconds, said Greg Forbes, Delta’s managing director of airport experience. While a “simple change,” the time savings add up, making the line noticeably faster, Mr. Forbes added.
“Anywhere that there’s PreCheck, I think, could benefit from Digital ID,” Mr. Forbes said.
Other airlines have begun similar experiments for PreCheck travelers: Those flying on American Airlines can use their faces to get through PreCheck screening at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport and also to enter the airline’s lounge at Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport. United Airlines allows PreCheck travelers to use their faces at bag drop counters at Chicago O’Hare International Airport; the airline is scheduled to bring this program to Los Angeles International Airport in March.
And Alaska Airlines plans to spend $2.5 billion over the next three years in upgrades, including new bag drop machines, in Seattle, Portland, Ore., San Francisco, Los Angeles and Anchorage. A machine will scan the traveler’s ID, match it to a photo, and then scan the printed bag tags. The new system, designed to move guests through the bag tagging and dropping process in less than five minutes (compared to around eight minutes now), will be in Portland in May.
Charu Jain, the airline’s senior vice president of innovation and merchandising, said that it felt like the right moment for Alaska because of improved technology and increasing passenger familiarity with facial recognition.
Kaynak: briturkish.com
