Back to Air Transport IT Review - Issue 1, May 2010

Biometrics − facing the future

Biometrics - facing the future

With biometric technology fast maturing and becoming increasingly sophisticated, biometric solutions such as SITA's iBorders BioThenticate, are at last starting to make serious inroads as a high-tech identity management and verification tool within the airport environment.

Initial deployments have tended to focus on controlling access to restricted areas for staff, aircrew and suppliers. Currently 29% of airports globally use biometrics for this purpose against only 4% that use it in the check-in or boarding process, according to the Airport IT Trends Survey 2009, by SITA and Airline Business.

Yemmi Agbebi, Director of Portfolio Marketing, SITA says: "Biometric technology overcomes the limitations of conventional access control systems − based on pin codes, passwords or photo IDs − since unlike most traditional methods of identification, biometrics cannot be lost, forgotten, stolen or easily forged."

Economic advantages

"Biometrics technology also offers economic advantages over traditional, manned cross-entry points for restricted areas on an airport," he continues. "Take, for example, a conventionally manned landside-airside staff crossing. Ordinarily, it would take at least two full time employees, each working eight hour shifts to provide 16 hours daily coverage. By comparison, biometrics could provide 24/7 coverage for a fraction of the cost."

Whether for facilitation or security, the use of biometric technology for passenger processing - such as SITA's iBorders BioThenticate - has been slower to progress, but that too is changing.

The rise of e-passports

A key driver has been the recommendation to governments by ICAO of biometric passports, or e-passports, as they are known. These contain a digital image of the face and in some cases another biometric identifier, making it possible for the first time to establish a unique connection between the document and its owner. With more than 80 countries issuing e-passports, including the US and member countries of the EU, it is fast becoming the most common travel document used by passengers.

E-passports bring a number of advantages. In particular, by being machine-readable, they facilitate automation. With passenger numbers expected to grow there is a clear need for faster processing by border management agencies, as well as airlines and airports.

Border agencies will be able to combine the automation offered by e-passports with the exploitation of biometric technologies to make the primary inspection process more secure and faster and more convenient for passengers.

Implementations

Today, biometric technologies are being used in many parts of the world as a way of clearing travellers swiftly and securely through immigration control, thereby enabling authorities to deploy their resources more efficiently. The latest Airport IT Trends Survey indicates 23% of airports use biometric identification at border controls.

The US and Europe have already started to enhance border procedures by enrolling, storing and querying biometric data. Good examples include the US-VISIT implementations at US airports, as well as other government programmes such as the UK's IRIS or The Netherlands' PRIVIUM, which use biometrics to validate identity at airport border control points. In the EU, the introduction of biometric technologies for the visa issuance process will also start soon.

E-passports should also encourage the use of biometric fast-tracking. For example, trusted traveller programmes can be used to allow pre-enrolled travellers to be processed faster through border control, using their biometric identifiers. This not only makes it more convenient for registered travellers but it also reduces overall queuing by enabling border officials to speed up the processing of travellers with non e-passports.

Eventually, biometrics solutions like SITA's iBorders BioThenticate will be needed by airlines for check-in and boarding to help them meet their obligations to perform security checks in a self-service world. As Agbebi puts it: "The continued expansion of passenger self-service is highly-reliant on correct passenger identification and verification, since air travellers are implicitly 'trusted' to provide the right information and manage processes without the intervention of authorized aviation personnel.

"Consequently, fail-safe security at vital points in the process is essential, otherwise the self-service business model is doomed to failure as it would reintroduce unacceptably high level of uncertainty and risk."

Standards and cooperation - "crucial"

If air transport is to fully realize the benefits of biometrics then standardized processes, systems and infrastructure are crucial. This not only keeps costs down by avoiding the need to handle multiple variants, but also delivers greater efficiency and convenience to passengers, airport workers and border management staff through better familiarity with the requirements.

It is starting to happen at a national level. In Canada, for example, there is a national scheme for airport workers called the Restricted Access Identity Card (RAIC) programme. The US operates a similar biometric programme called Transportation Worker Identification Credential (TWIC) which is expected to become a basis for standardization of airport worker credentials across America.

At a global level the picture is more disjointed. ICAO has not advocated just a single biometric identifier, and instead has recommended the use of face, fingerprint or iris biometrics in electronic travel documents. However, there is a need to avoid interoperability concerns for both the industry and international travellers, as different countries opt for different identifiers.

Additionally, it is worth bearing in mind that standardization involves processes as much as technology, for example, to establish trustworthiness of an enrolment made by another country.

Facilitation versus security

The lack of global standardization also puts greater responsibility on the industry stakeholders to work together much more closely to ensure commonality system-wide. On the facilitation side, the IATA Passenger Facilitation Working Group (PFWG, formerly SPT - the Simplified Passenger Travel work group) made up of cross-industry experts, including SITA, is mapping out airport processes, built around secure self-service using biometrics at every step.

But Agbebi believes border management agencies also need to cooperate with the industry to develop a truly integrated passenger journey. "Biometrics is most effective when it is integrated with airline and airport processes to streamline aviation operations and make travel seamless, efficient and convenient."

So has the industry found an answer to the great facilitation versus security debate that has been raging since 9/11? The omens are good with key technical issues more or less resolved. Nevertheless, biometric technology is not perfect. There are a tiny percentage of false positives or false negatives to be expected, that will need to be dealt with.

There are also privacy limitations that could tie industry and government hands in collecting and storing biometric data. But as Agbebi puts it: "Biometrics has the potential to offer outstanding security and processing advantages as well as cost benefits over manual identification methods."

Indonesia launches biometric verification for border control

Indonesia is set to benefit from a new border control system that includes biometrics capture at 27 of the nation's air and sea ports. The Directorate General of Immigration at the Department of Law and Human Rights in Indonesia will roll out the system with SITA.

Five facts about the system:

Using SITA iBorders, the system will significantly improve Indonesia's control of its borders through additional checking of watch lists, verification of passports, visas and permits, and integration of visa issue.
Importantly, the capture of biometrics from travellers, specifically facial images and fingerprints, will give the added security that the person at the border is the one who has been checked against all the databases.
The first airport, Adisucipto International Airport serving Yogyakarta in Java, has just gone live with the system and the remaining ports will be up and running by June.
It uses SITA's new iBorders BioThenticate product suite − launched at Passenger Terminal EXPO in March - which integrates biometric identity management into all aspects of passenger processing at airports, including secure self-service check-in, bag drop and boarding.
Passengers using a single biometric credential, such as a smartcard or ePassport, can check-in, pass through security, pass through immigration, and board the aircraft, verifying their identity at each step of the journey.