Hanep! DOTr eyes use of facial scan in PH airports entrance, plane boarding
Stressed and pissed off by the usual long queues at the airports? Well, this could be just the solution that every air passenger needs.
The Department of Transportation (DOtr) is eyeing the use of passenger biometrics in all airports across the country in a bid to speed up processing and ensure efficient movement of passengers.
Once implemented, DOTr Undersecretary for Aviation and Airports Sector Roberto Lim said the use of biometric processing will be from the entrance of all airports up to the boarding of the airplane.
“The future is now… biometrics passenger processing will significantly make the Philippine airport experience more pleasant, more efficient,” said Lim during the Biometric Airport Passenger Processing Forum held in Davao City last week.
During the forum, several resource persons around the globe presented the benefits of having biometric processing in airports especially in busy airports.
As presented, a single token created from the passenger’s biometric facial scan, the boarding pass and a biometric data embedded ID such as passport will allow a passenger to breeze through airport entrance, check in, final boarding pass check to airside, and boarding.
Lim said the Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines (CAAP) and operators of the Davao International Airport Authority (DIAA) are looking into a pilot operation of the new technology but right now, preparations are still being made for its use.
There is still no specific date as to when the biometric processing technology would be pilot-tested and eventually used in the country.
Amid concerns of leak of the data that would be taken from the passengers, representatives from the international private sectors were also invited to topics of data privacy, biometric sources and interoperability.
Also present during the forum were representatives from major airlines Philippine Airlines (PAL), Cebu Pacific Air (CEB), Philippine Air Asia, Bureau of Immigration (BI), and other ground handling companies.