Emirates gets US nod for biometric boarding

Emirates is talking with authorities from other countries about biometric boarding after receiving approval to offer the technology on flights to the US. The approval came after a successful trial on services from Dubai to New York and Los Angeles. READ: More than 150,000 stranded after Thomas Cook collapses. The Dubai-based airline says it is the first carrier outside the US to receive approval for biometric boarding from US Customs Border Protection (CBP) and expects to implement for all 12 of its American destinations by year-end. It has also started rolling out biometric boarding for passengers on the US end with the system in place on its Washington-Dubai flights with more to come. The airline says the process reduces the time for identity checks to two seconds or less and does not require pre-registration. Customers who choose not to use the technology can simply approach the gate desks. Emirates does not store any biometric records of its customers and says the data is managed securely by CBP. The pilot program through the July to August peak period involving the New York and Los Angeles services saw some flights achieving 100 percent biometric boarding. The system clicks the passenger's photo at the boarding ate and this is then matched against CBP's gallery in real-time to verify the person's identity in two seconds or less. Emirates cautions that the system may not work for those who haven't traveled to the US. for a long time or whose images are not in CBP's gallery. “Our ultimate aim is to help our passengers travel paperless, without the need for passports and IDs,’’ Emirates Group Security divisional vice president Dr Abdulla Al Hashimi said. “Biometric boarding is one more step in streamlining processes at our hub using digital technology, saving our customers time and giving them peace of mind. “We are talking with authorities of several countries to make security using facial recognition technology more acceptable and accessible." The announcement came as global aviation security symposium AVSEC Global 2019 was being held in Dubai. Emirates currently flies to New York, Newark, Boston, Chicago, Dallas, Houston, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Seattle, Washington, D.C., Orlando and Fort Lauderdale.