A two-finger biometric salute can now get Delta Air Lines customers into 50 Sky Club locations across the US.
Delta Sky Club members who are US citizens or permanent residents can use CLEAR biometric fingerprint readers to check in across the domestic network, side-stepping the need to have a paper or mobile boarding pass or a club membership card.
They need to enroll by registering at a CLEAR enrolment kiosk in one of 14 Delta Sky Club locations across the country.
They will then be able to check in to all clubs by placing two fingers on a fingerprint reader.
Delta has been testing biometrics at a number of locations over the past year, including at Sky Clubs at Ronald Reagan National Airport (DCA) in Washington, D.C., and its home hub in Atlanta.
It has also been looking at biometric technology for boarding at DCA and bag drop at Minneapolis-St Paul. Its relationship with CLEAR stretches back to 2016.
The airline says it is the only US-based global airline to offer customers a secure biometric check-in option at a single touch point across its network.
“From unlocking our phones to entering the workplace, more and more people have the option to use biometrics as a form of identity verification for daily activities,” Delta’s chief operating officer Gil West said in announcing the Sky Club roll-out.
“Having that option is quickly becoming an expectation that we are working hard to meet through this program.”
The Sky Club readers feature a redesign that includes ergonomic fingerprint support and an angled fingerprint scanner to optimize the hand angle and promote successful scans.
There is also an intuitive sound and lighting check-in response to help both customers and staff.
The changes were made after customer feedback during the testing phase.
The aviation industry is increasingly looking biometrics as a way of making check-in more secure as well as speed up the process and address bottlenecks in areas such as border security.
Facial recognition is another technology that is gaining ground with JetBlue and British Airways among the airlines using a passenger’s unique facial features to identify them.
