“So we have to put the right use of technology in and around there to stop that from happening.”Ĭooper lays out how facial technology works for BA customers at Heathrow. “We do have to, as a result of that, separate our customers in some way – so that you don’t have international travelers getting on to a domestic flight, especially if they’re in transit – they could, in effect, jump the border,” explains Cooper. Raoul Cooper, British Airways’ senior digital design manager, tells CNN Travel that BA – alongside other airlines flying domestically to and from London’s Heathrow Airport – has been using facial recognition on domestic travelers for about eight or nine years.Īt Terminal 5 and Terminal 2, international travelers and domestic travelers mix in the common departure lounge. These all seem to have become ubiquitous in recent years, but the technology’s not new. Other examples include iris recognition, fingerprints and facial recognition. Courtesy British Airwaysīiometric technology describes tech that uses your physiological characteristics – think, the iPhone thumbprint that lets you use Apple Pay or unlock your phone without a password. “I had a lot of questions, I think everybody should have a lot of questions.”īritish Airways has been self-boarding passengers at Heathrow for some time. “We are increasingly moving towards this type of automation – personal data and biometric data being available to companies and to corporations,” says Fegan. Implicit in the Tweet was the answer that, yes, on some JetBlue flights, facial recognition and biometric technology is used – seemingly to speed up boarding, and sift out security threats.įegan’s initial Tweet received over 8,500 likes, sparking a thread where passengers voiced privacy concerns and debated the pros and cons of a technology that’s becoming omnipresent in airports across the world. Did facial recognition replace boarding passes, unbeknownst to me? Did I consent to this?- MacKenzie Chung Fegan April 17, 2019 Instead of scanning my boarding pass or handing over my passport, I looked into a camera before being allowed down the jet bridge. Sorry if this made you feel uncomfortable,” read the response. “You’re able to opt out of this procedure, MacKenzie. “Did facial recognition replace boarding passes, unbeknownst to me? Did I consent to this?” She wrote, clicking send.Ībout 10 minutes later, Fegan received a reply: “I was like, ‘What, just happened?’ There was no boarding pass scan, nothing like that.”īefore she’d even sat down on her airplane seat, Fegan, a New York-based journalist, fired off a Tweet to JetBlue, asking the airline to explain the process. “There were plastic barricades across the front of each lane, I look to my right, and the gate opens,” she tells CNN Travel. In April 2019, traveler MacKenzie Fegan was left surprised and confused when she boarded a JetBlue flight from the United States to Mexico, without handing over her passport, or travel documents. Instead of scanning her boarding pass, the airport gate scanned her face.
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