Biometrics and smart airports: here’s how we will fly again

Biometrics - Photo courtesy of SITA
Biometrics – Photo courtesy of SITA

Of course, flying in a private jet requires fewer controls and offers far greater health security, but certain changes will also be applied to private flights.

Many technologies will be deployed to revive a sector which in April saw flights collapse by 80% worldwide. Sergio Colella, President of Europa Sita, tells the news.

Rome. “Digitization of transport” here are the keywords for those who decide to travel by plane at the time of the Covid. Beyond the annoyance of the mask there is good news: the risks are reduced by half and the queues thinned. Sergio Colella, President of Europe at Sita (International Aeronautical Telecommunications Company) is sure of this. He reads it like a mantra: “Digitization and automation to restart the sector”. Colella does not use half measures: “A virus was enough to destroy a fundamental aspect of the world economy, it is enough to think that at present only 10% of air transport is used in Europe and certain countries are even stopped at 2% and in an average scenario, it will take 3 or 4 years to return to the figures for 2019 “. How does the urge to travel reignite? “It is mandatory to aim to reduce costs, increase the guarantee of safety and reduce the environmental impact”. Above all, it will be necessary to offer compliance with the new health rules, thus helping to build confidence that while flying, there is no risk of infection”.

The stages of the traveler

The essential stops for travelers are of course check-in, baggage, security, border and boarding. Nothing should be left to chance: “Distance is compulsory, thanks to virtual queues that allow boarding at different times, and the help of” computer vision “to make preventive analyzes of passengers”. What about hygiene?

What about hygiene?

“Contactless situations will develop with paper documents replaced by smartphones that allow you to manage your trip yourself from home, and document and police checks are minimized thanks to biometrics which creates a digital identity . ” How does biometry (for many) still mysterious, work? “Soon, passengers will be able to use biometric lines, to be recognized in the main transit passages, thanks to the creation of a” biometric token “- described Colella – in practice, upon arrival at check-in, they must scan their passport and take a photo, once done, they can pass the following checks with a facial scan. “For example, the Sita Smart Path, which allows biometric registration, is already active at Athens airport .

Anti Covid Security

And health? “In Europe, the situation is improving like a leopard patch, so that health checks are becoming more important in some countries, but in general, temperature measurement will be more and more widespread or even evidence of having had the vaccine or serological test may be required. ” Obviously, all this will not be necessary for passengers on private jets.

But the real news is that the airport will start to think for itself: “Thanks to artificial intelligence, advanced simulation will be possible to collect data on airport and airline operations, composing it on a screen computer in a real-time view. This overview allows you to view, simulate and anticipate what will happen at the airport, allowing you to generate timely responses and automate them to plan the different operations “. Good news for baggage: “Once arrived at boarding, passengers can check in their suitcase by showing their face instead of the boarding pass, this allows you to associate a label that corresponds to the baggage, which allows them to be found during the trip or in the event of loss. “In short, technology is doing everything to revive a sector which, only in April, saw the number of flights fall by 80% in the world and by 90% in Europe. The hope, concludes Colella, is to start again taking into account the environment: “Thanks to the numerous digital information, you can have indications that allow you to optimize the movements of the plane. At Zurich Airport, for example, you can save 1,500 tonnes of fuel per year thanks to preventive information such as not going to where there is turbulence or where consumption would be higher. “

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