YVR Becomes First to Comply with Canadian Border Regulations with Biometric Kiosks

Vancouver International Airport has become the first in Canada to comply with the federal government’s enhanced biometric border screening requirements, authorities have announced.

The compliance is thanks to YVR’s use of BorderXpress kiosks. Developed by Innovative Travel Solutions (ITS), an independent YVR business unit, the kiosks were first deployed in the spring of 2017. The self-service kiosks were initially designed to use facial recognition to link travelers to their travel documents; now, ITS’s BorderXpress Primary Inspection Kiosks also support fingerprint scanning.

That’s key to compliance with the Government of Canada’s expanded biometric screening requirements, which come into effect at the end of this month and mandate fingerprint authentication for certain travelers.

Elaborating on the BorderXpress Primary Inspection Kiosk solution in a statement announcing the YVR deployment, Vancouver Airport Authority Innovation and Planning VP Steve Hankinson asserted that the kiosks “are the first to be adapted to accommodate the needs of the Canadian government while also providing a border control solution that unites security, efficiency and innovation to transform the passenger experience, which is ultimately what drives our team forward.”

The deployment offers the latest example of the intertwined trends of biometric passenger processing and biometric border control, with government authorities increasingly requiring the use of biometric authentication for travelers while air travel stakeholders look to biometric technologies to enhance efficiency and reduce costs.

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March 6, 2019 – by Alex Perala