Passengers departing from Miami International Airport (MIA) will soon be able to board their international flights with just the click of a camera.
A recently approved contract with SITA will see the implementation of biometric boarding at all of MIA’s 130-plus gates. Installation is expected to be fully completed in 2023. When finished, the project will be the largest implementation of biometric technology at any US airport.
Using SITA’s Smart Path solution, which leverages NEC’s biometric identity platform, passengers will simply step up to a camera at the boarding gate before their picture is used to confirm their identities and their authorisation to travel. MIA and US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) first tested biometric boarding in 2019 during a pilot programme with select airlines, with a significant improvement in boarding times.
“Globally we see that passengers want a faster journey through the airport where key steps in the journey are automated. Our Smart Path biometric solution will enable future expansion to other touchpoints at MIA as well as the use of multiple forms of digital identity,” said Matthys Serfontein, president of Americas at SITA.
