London City Airport has selected Amadeus to supply self-service kiosks and automated bag-drop units that will be shared by all airlines operating at the airport. The equipment is biometrically enabled, so travelers can enroll for biometrics once for a trip and then use them to check in and drop their bags.
The deal is part of a wider overhaul of the airport’s passenger services, from check-in to boarding. Amadeus says the changes will let London City serve more travelers from its existing terminal building.
The airport, in London’s Royal Docks, has permission to grow toward a cap of nine million passengers a year. Ian Cowie, its senior director of airport operations, said working with Amadeus “and its open, multi-cloud technology” on the full check-in-to-boarding experience would let the airport further reduce queues, increase capacity and operate more efficiently. “We’re excited to bring the latest in self-service and biometric technology to travelers at London City Airport,” he said.
Amadeus Airport Cloud Use Service, or ACUS, is already available throughout the terminal. It allows airlines to run passenger-service applications on shared airport infrastructure rather than relying on fixed desks dedicated to individual carriers. This lets staff serve passengers from anywhere in the airport.
Amadeus describes ACUS as a shared common-use platform that connects an airport to more than 200 airlines through a single network connection, with airline applications that can be switched on or off to match demand.
Georges Fenergi, Amadeus’s senior vice president for airports and border authorities in Europe, the Middle East and Africa, said self-service options, shared infrastructure and biometric technology would help the airport operate more efficiently with stakeholders, manage traveler flows and “offer a seamless end-to-end journey from check-in to boarding.”
Amadeus’s general documentation for its airport biometrics describes passengers enrolling from a phone or at the airport by taking a selfie, which is matched to a verified identity document to create a profile. At each biometric touchpoint, a camera photo is matched against that gallery to retrieve the passenger’s travel reference. Passengers opt in and consent to share their identity data for the trip, after which Amadeus says the data is removed from its system.
Sources: Amadeus, Amadeus cloud documentation, Amadeus biometric documentation
–
By the ID Tech Editorial Team
