The TSA has started testing out a biometric boarding system at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport and Denver International Airport.
The system is designed to replace travel documents with fingerprint scans, and launched as a pilot project today. Interested participants are being recruited from TSA PreCheck, a biometric pre-screening program aimed at helping participants to move through airport lines more quickly.
The new TSA initiative represents the latest escalation in a burgeoning biometric airport screening trend in the US. This week, Delta Airlines and the Customs and Border Protection agency announced a biometric screening project at JFK International Airport, and plans for a pilot project based on facial recognition to start up later this summer at Hartsfield-Jackson; and just a couple of weeks ago, US airline JetBlue announced its own collaboration with the CBP to test a system aimed at replacing all travel documents with biometric identification.
While the Hartsfield-Jackson airport appears to be becoming something of a locus for biometric experimentation, the TSA’s new project may also prove popular at Denver, with The Denver Post reporting that a TSA PreCheck enrollment RV extended a stay in the city earlier this year due to high demand.
Sources: The Denver Post, Bloomberg
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June 14, 2017 – by Alex Perala
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