LAX Installs Biometric Kiosks at Expanded Terminal 1

Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) has completed a $477.5 million addition to Terminal 1. The new extension will help boost airport capacity and allow passengers to move through various checkpoints more quickly.

To that end, the addition comes with six new TSA security lanes that will enhance the airport’s passenger screening capabilities. It also includes new ticket counters to speed up departures, and two new baggage carousels to make things easier at arrival. Three of those ticket counters have been set aside for Southwest Airlines, though the airport has installed biometric self-service kiosks throughout the ticketing area. The kiosks come courtesy of Materna IPS (Intelligent Passenger Solutions), and enable a contactless check-in experience.

LAX is planning to link the extended Terminal 1 to Terminal 2 to allow passengers to access other parts of the airport without needing to go back through the security line. The new Terminal 1 is open now, while the connector will be completed sometime in the fall.

In other news, the US Green Building Council praised LAX for recycling with the project. Thirty-five percent of the building itself was made with recycled materials, and the contractors recycled 78 percent of the waste that was generated during construction. With that in mind, the Green Building Council granted the project a Silver LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) certification.

LAX trialed a self-service baggage drop system at the Tom Bradley International Terminal in February of 2020, while US Customs and Border Protection deployed its face-based Simplified Arrival screening system at the airport in October. Multiple airlines have also installed Vision-Box’s biometric e-gates to facilitate contactless boarding. Finnair, Norwegian Air, and British Airways are some of the airlines that are now using the gates, which use facial recognition to verify the identities of travelers.

Source: Homeland Security Today

–

June 14, 2021 – by Eric Weiss