Biometric pathways in airports, for a simplified passenger experience

The airport sector has undergone numerous transformations throughout its history, with the most recent being triggered by the Covid crisis. Airports had to swiftly reassess their strategic priorities to provide a coherent vision for the resumption of their activities and to better address current development challenges.  

In this context, the present study by Sia Partners outlines the key strategic priorities of airports along with associated use cases, contributing to the formulation of our initial vision for the innovative airport of tomorrow. 

Among the identified strategic pillars is passenger hospitality, a focal point for major stakeholders who are considering how to reinvent the travel experience and ensure passengers a quality end-to-end journey.  

Sia Partners has identified several customer journey use cases that could be addressed by end-to-end biometric process solutions. With diverse architectures, these solutions offer multiple customer satisfaction benefits. 

The implementation of these, however, requires addressing significant constraints, particularly regulatory ones. As a result, biometric processes vary widely around the world. Our comparative study sheds light on the challenges related to airport maturity in these services and examines current trends to better assist our clients in their endeavours. 

Experiments with end-to-end biometric pathways are increasing rapidly, leading to a growth in partnerships with airlines, airports, and IT providers. These initiatives enable airports to explore future expansions in passenger accessibility, a criterion for which our comparative analysis reveals significant heterogeneity. Simultaneously, regulations governing these practices are adapting, necessitating careful attention to their evolution. For instance, France has been studying a legislative proposal since mid-2023 aimed at regulating biometric experiments in public spaces for a period of three years.