Airport Passenger Processing Technology: A Biometric Airport Journey

Abstract

A passengers’ traveling journey throughout the airport is anything but simple. A passenger goes through numerous hoops and hurdles before safely boarding the aircraft. Many airports today are implementing isolated solutions for passenger processing. Some of these technologies include automated self-service kiosks and bag tag, self-service bag drop-off, along with automated self-service gates for boarding and border control. These solutions can be integrated with biometric systems to enhance passenger handling. This thesis analyzes the current passenger processing technology implemented at airports around the world and their associated challenges that passengers face. A new passenger processing technology called a biometric single token identification (ID) is presented as a solution to help alleviate current issues. By using a medium-sized international airport as a case study, the results show that a single token ID is beneficial to the time it takes to process a passenger. Furthermore, it demonstrates that implementation of a single token ID with self-service technology can provide enhanced passenger travel experience, improving operational process efficiency, all while ensuring safety and security