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The provision of a smooth,efficient ,safe,secure and enjoyable journey experience from a traveler's point pf of origin to destination,within the destination and back again.( IATA, 2019)

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This can be achieved by various steps:

Understanding the customer journey

Bio-metrics and digital identity management

Integration of systems

Consistent communication

Easy baggage drop off systems

Personalisation

Continuous Improvements

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Airports and Airlines cam understand the customer journey better by implementing different strategies to help them know more about what the customers liked and what the customers did not like.

They can put up surveys and feedback forms on airport counters upon arrival or departure this way passengers are able to say what they think.

Analysing data from different bookings and systems ,flights schedules and apps to identify patterns and trends in the customer behavior and also preferences .

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Understanding Customer Journey Stages And Touchpoints

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Discover the 5 main customer journey stages, learn how to track them, and start paving the way to greater customer satisfaction today!

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Self service baggage drop of : This is a system where different passengers can easily and independently check in their bags without the assistance of airline/airport staff member. Passengers will need to use their boarding passes which can also be acquired during online check in or at the self check in kiosk.

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British Airways Automatic Self Service Bag drop of.

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British Airways Automatic Self Service Bag drop of.

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This video demonstrates how the self service bag drop of works.

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British Airways Automatic Self Bag Drop Off Kiosk

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Biometric and digital identity Recognition

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Biometric and digital identity Recognition

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Digital identity is a term used broadly and can have different interpretations depending on the context or use. In general terms, digital identity is a set of electronically captured and stored attributes and credentials that can uniquely identify a person, an entity or an object to authorize access or to validate entitlements to access and to claim products and services. For the purpose of One ID, digital identity covers the biographic and biometric information of the(IATA ,2023)

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"The use of bio-metric identification technologies is poised to expand in kiosk,given the rapid growth of fingerprint,facial recognition,retina,scanning and voice scanning technologies in both consumer industrial application application".( Elliot Maras ,2017)

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New digital kiosks unveiled at airport will streamline ID verification

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Advantages and disadvantages of Bio-metric and digital identity 

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Advantages and disadvantages of Bio-metric and digital identity 

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Benefits of understanding customer journey!

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Benefits of understanding customer journey!

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Benefits of self service baggage drop of!

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Benefits of self service baggage drop of!

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A holistic approach to a seamless passenger experience

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Passenger experience is being left behind in the technological revolution that is streamlining most other sectors of airport operations. Human Recognition System's Simon Meyer tells us more about what the passenger wants and how airports can meet their demands.

In order to react to the challenge of processing growing passenger numbers through the existing airport infrastructure, the aviation industry requires significant change. Global passenger traffic is expected to double by 2035, reaching 6 billion passengers ¹, so it's no surprise that airport technology is one of the fastest developing aspects of the entire industry. But despite the surge in innovation, very few of the changes being made focus on improving the passenger experience.

Despite passengers being the main reason for the existence of airports, most have come to expect long queues, delays and, more often than not, a stressful experience at the airport. In addition, with a backdrop of enhanced security requirements, unpleasant passenger experiences are on the increase. Lack of information provided by the airport can make the passenger feel like a pawn in a giant game of chess between the airport and the airline.

The commercial impact of stressed, time-poor passengers is a reduction in their likelihood to spend in the airport environment, resulting in lower revenue for the airport owners.

Adapting to 'The Information Age'

To improve the passenger experience, communication between airport, airlines and passengers will have to improve. In this digital, hyper-connected world - described as 'The Information Age' - customers expect real-time updates. Consider the level of service offered by other companies, like Amazon, who offer personalised customer journeys that provide experiences and content that not only informs, but engages customers at every stage. Despite this increasing expectation, customers of airlines and airports are subjected to an impersonal and chaotic 'one-size-fits-all' service. Airports are going to need to up their game as passengers increasingly seek a seamless, personalised and hassle-free travel experience.

The recent IATA Global Passenger Survey ² of 10,675 people across 153 countries revealed that passengers are quite specific about the technological enhancements they wish to see prioritised. They expect technology to give them more "personal control over their travel experience." This is unsurprising, echoing the levels of personalised service that customers are used to receiving from other service oriented businesses.

A specific improvement the survey highlighted was the need for real-time information to be sent directly to personal devices. Passengers want more information to help them plan their journey through the airport, with 51 per cent wanting to be kept informed of wait times at security and border control, and 58 per cent wanting to be kept informed of wait times at arrival customs. However, airports and airlines can only directly inform them about parts of the journey, which begs the question; does the passenger want alerts from the agent, airport and every airline they fly with?

Greater automation of airport processes was also high on the wish list, particularly at security and border control, which are described by respondents as "the biggest pain points". Additional requested developments include a single identity token for all travel processes with biometric identification being the favoured solution for 64 per cent of respondents.

Creating a digital identity

So how do we go about delivering on the demands of the 21 st Century passenger? Airlines and airports currently operate as separate entities, resulting in two alternative views of the passenger journey which is hindering industry progression in terms of customer service.

The integration of airline and airport data through passenger automation technology is imperative to markedly improve the situation. Data-sharing enables a holistic view of the passenger's end-to-end journey, which can be used to maximise operational efficiency through a reduction in queues and delays, and, perhaps most importantly, improve customer satisfaction - a valuable end goal for all parties.

This goal can be achieved through utilising the 'Passenger Operational Database' (PODB) -data automation technology that holds information in real-time about each passenger. Through this 'digital passenger', airports are able to treat the passenger as an individual and offer a truly personalised service. In turn, this provides increased scope to enable on time departures.

Using this data management system, airports and airlines can proactively engage with the passenger. Take a standard journey of a passenger through an airport. The PODB will pick the passenger upon entry to the airport, warn them of queues in security and which gate they will need to go to, help direct them through the airport smoothly to maximise their time in the retail environment at the airport and even encourage spend with special offers. Armed with more information, the passenger can decide how to spend their time in the departure lounge rather than queuing. The challenge here is overcoming the ownership issue of the passenger, do they belong to the airport or the airline or both? Deciding to jointly own a passenger will improve services and feedback for both parties.

Insight will lead to industry transformation

Ultimately, the industry needs to re-think its current customer service strategies in line with what the passenger expects. The service industry is moving quickly to personalise every step of the process but the aviation sector is a step-change behind. For the industry to progress, passenger data must be shared between the airline and the airport to provide in-depth insight into passenger preferences and expectations and bring the digital passenger to life. The projects Human Recognition Systems has and continues to work on will help drive standards, as well as providing both acceptance and evidence that this transformational change of approach ultimately benefits the airline, the airport, and most importantly the passenger.

For more information about the technology available to create a seamless passenger experience, visit www.mflow.co.uk.

References

¹ IATA Passenger Facilitation http://www.iata.org/whatwedo/passenger/Documents/Passenger%20Facilitation%20Generic%202016%20F.pdf

² IATA Global Passenger Survey http://www.iata.org/publications/store/Documents/GPS-2017-Highlights-report.pdf

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A holistic approach to a seamless passenger experience

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The passenger is being left behind in the tech revolution that is streamlining airport operations. Human Recognition System's Simon Meyer tells us more.

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Biometrics and Digital Identity Recognition

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Biometrics and Digital Identity Recognition

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Read "Airport Biometrics: A Primer" at NAP.edu

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Below is the uncorrected machine-read text of this chapter, intended to provide our own search engines and external engines with highly rich, chapter-representative searchable text of each book. Because it is UNCORRECTED material, please consider the following text as a useful but insufficient proxy for the authoritative book pages.

189Â Â Summary Carrasco International Airport (MVD) has successfully implemented biometrics at its border control and boarding checkpoints at arrivals and departures, significantly increasing process- ing capacity at those points. With only international flights, all of the passengers go through border controlâ€"since 2016 choosing the new e-gates or queuing for the control podium. At the e-gates, passengers automatically enroll by scanning their passport, selecting their flight on a touch screen, and having their picture taken. If the picture matches the biometric information on the e-passport and no other issues are present, the passenger is allowed to exit or enter the country. With successful enrollment, for the departures process, the passenger can then com- plete boarding by simply approaching the e-gate at the boarding gate and having his/her face scanned. A positive match opens the gate, and all personal information is purged 30Â minutes after departure. Passengers wishing not to use the biometric-enabled checkpoints may opt out and use the legacy facilities. Processing times at the border control gates have been reduced from 40 or 50Â seconds to approximately 15Â seconds, and for those passengers with eligible e-passports, boarding times have also decreased. Additionally, the implementation of the border gates has reduced passen- ger and ground staff interaction and contributed to a more seamless and touchless passenger journey, improving health safety at the airport. The use of biometric technology has also enabled the border control authority to initiate risk profiling (related to COVID-19) during the arrivals process. Passengers arriving from low-risk countries were able to pass through the border e-gate quickly, while passengers from higher- risk countries were easily directed to a secondary screening or additional health check. This greatly reduced the need for increased staff and other resources otherwise needed to check all passengers by their origins. This was all made possible by integrating data defined as advanced passenger information and PNR into the system platform. See Table H-1 for more information. Introduction At the international-only (no domestic services) airport of Montevideo in Uruguay, named Carrasco International Airport (Montevideo Carrasco Airport 2020), the airport operator Cor- poracion America has made significant progress in piloting and subsequently implementing in full a biometric system that automates most of the border crossing and boarding steps in the passenger journey. The airport has taken a leadership role in South America as the first to implement biometric solutions (Vision-BoxÂ 2018b). A P P E N D I X H Case Study: Risk Management During COVID-19 Using Biometrics at Carrasco International Airport, Montevideo, Uruguay

190 Airport Biometrics: A Primer How Does It Work? System Architecture, Pre-Existing Systems, and Databases The biometric solutions at MVD are found at the border control e-gates and the boarding e-gates. A collaboration between Vision-Box and the Centre of Excellence team of Corpo- racion Americaâ€"specifically the Easy Airport Consultation Division (Easy Airport 2020)â€" resulted in the creation of an in-house operating platform based on Vision-Boxâ€™s Orchestra architecture. Although the system is connected to the airline DCS systems, it does not have direct access to API and PNR information. Rather, the Easy Airport system is returned a What? â— Border and boarding biometrics enabled and implemented for risk management for COVID-19 â— 1:1 matching at border control â— 1:few matching at boarding Where? â— Carrasco International Airport, Montevideo Uruguay Passenger process steps â— Departures: Border control Boarding â— Arrivals: Immigration Who? â— Lead: Corporacion America (Centre of Excellence) â€" Easy Airport Consulting Division â— Stakeholders: Airport authorities: border control (immigration), Vision-Box (global vendor), Air Europe, and LATAM airlines Why? â— Improve passenger processing speed though airport â— Improve security as border officers can focus on high-risk passengers â— Allow risk-based profiling for COVID-19 testing How? â— Two biometrically enabled e-gates by Vision-Box; operating system a collaboration between Vision-Box and Corporacion America. â— E-gates at border control as well as e-gates at boarding. The e-gates at border control verify the passport that is scanned (1:1 matching) and let the passenger select his/her flight, and then a picture is taken of the passengerâ€™s face for the temporary biometric token. â— At boarding, the scanning of the passengerâ€™s face and subsequent successful matching (1:few) allows passage through the e-gate for boarding the aircraft. Enrollment/digital identity creation and verification â— No prior enrollment is needed. Everything is done at the border control checkpoint. â— Identity is verified by reading the e-passport and comparing to the stored biometric on the e-passport to the live picture taken of the passengerâ€™s face. â— Trip model token: the biographic and biometric information used for the token is only used for one trip. Verification of identity how? â— Matching of the e-passportâ€™s stored facial biometric with the image taken of the passengerâ€™s face at the e-gate (1:1 matching) For? â— International passengers only (MVD airport only has international connections.) â— Currently limited to passengers with: Uruguayan e-passport or ID card E-passport from other countries that do not have visa requirements Table H-1. Key facts of case study on risk management during COVID-19 with biometrics.

Case Study: Risk Management During COVID-19 Using Biometrics at Carrasco International Airport, Montevideo, Uruguay 191Â Â Ministry of Homeland Security risk scoring, which Carrasco International Airport uses for its risk-based assessments. This tailor-made system enables the operation of the e-gates, facilitates the temporary storage of the recorded biometrics, and provides an EasyWeb portal for its users and stakeholders. The EasyWeb portal is a unique feature and required most of the custom programming to be done in-house. The portal allows airlines to track passengers through different checkpoints during their airport journey. This allows the airlines to have a complete picture of the passen- gers who are ready for boarding or who might still be on the way to the gate. The EasyWeb portal also offers the airport Operational Control Centre (OCC) and third-party stakeholders some additional features, such as: â€¢ Dashboards of useful information such as waiting times and passenger flow statistics; and â€¢ Anonymized statistics of passenger flow, wait times, movements, and dwell times through the airport passenger journey. The Passenger Journey For departing passengers, enrollment using biometrics prior to the arrival at the airport is not needed. With a confirmed flight booking, the passenger can check in online or at the airport, drop off baggage, and then continue to the pre-security e-gate. At this point, only a valid boarding pass is scanned, allowing the passenger to continue to airport security. After clearing security, biometric enrollment is done at the border control checkpoint since all flights at MVD are international. At this e-gate, the passport is scanned, and the passenger selects his/her flight on the touchscreen, after which a live picture is taken of the passenger. The passengerâ€™s identity is verified by comparing the passportâ€™s stored biometric information to the live picture and, if verified, passage is granted through the e-gate (Vision-BoxÂ 2018a). The facial biometric is then stored temporarily in the system and passed to the e-gate at the correct boarding gate. When the passenger arrives at the boarding gate at the designated time, he/she will be granted passage in case of a successful match (1:few). For the arriving passenger, he/she will only encounter the biometric-enabled border control gates that verify oneâ€™s identity through facial recognition and comparison to the stored bio- metric information in the e-passport or ID card, which is similar to the departure process. Retention and Storage The government of Uruguay has a fairly modern approach to personal private information (PPI) and has laid down strict rules for the capture, use, retention, and deletion of this infor- mation. The goals are to keep the information safe, delete it when possible, and make sure that if other parties want to use it, the information benefits the whole community. At MVD, the stored biographic and biometric data that are linked to flight information are purged 30Â minutes after departure. What remains are the non-identifiable statistical data points that benefit, for example, the airport OCC, the airlines, or third parties. System Architecture Flow Diagram The flow diagram of this case study can be found in the Risk Management During COVID-19 Using Biometrics, Carrasco Airport, Montevideo, Uruguay, case study in ChapterÂ 2.

192 Airport Biometrics: A Primer Stakeholders and Responsibilities Stakeholders The project was led by Corporacion America in collaboration with the airport (government) authorities at Montevideo and the vendor Vision-Box. The main stakeholders also include the two main airlines at the airport, Air Europa and LATAM, and several airport departments. Responsibilities and Governance Corporacion America, the airport authority, has taken the lead for this project and has put in place multiple working groups to make this effort a reality. Use Case Review Benefits The main benefits of the implementation of the biometric-enabled e-gates at MVD have proven to be: â€¢ Improved security, â€¢ Improved health safety, â€¢ Reduced staffing requirements, â€¢ Faster border crossing and boarding times, and â€¢ COVID-19â€"related risk profiling of passengers. The first benefit relates to the improved security because the border control officers have more availability to focus their time on high-risk passengers. Instead of having to process all the passengers and focus the majority of their time on checking low-risk passengers, the border control officers can now invest most of their time on more high-value activities. This improved the border control officersâ€™ performance as well as job satisfaction. The security of flights has also increased. When boarding 200 passengers in 20Â minutes and with airline ground staff often being stressed or in a rush, the time needed to accurately check each passport picture adds pressure. The reduced number of interactions with ground staff and touchpoints are a more recent focus and benefit. The biometric-enabled e-gates have made the passenger journey at MVD move toward a fully touchless, seamless journey. Fewer touchpoints and less interaction decrease the risk of transmission of communicable diseases such as, for example, COVID-19. Overall, the Easy Airport system, together with the EasyWeb portal, have allowed the airport and the airlines to adopt a much more data-intensive operation and to learn to better allo- cate resources and plan ahead. Data-driven solutions have, for example, reduced some staffing requirements at checkpoints or reallocated the priority of jobs. Also, with the portal, airlines have a complete picture of the passengers who are ready for boarding or who might still be on the way to the gate, which improves the effectiveness of the services that the ground staff can offer. This was a major incentive for the airlines to join the program. For airlines and passengers, the faster border crossing and boarding of aircraft were a big benefit. Traditional border crossing checks would typically take 40 or 50Â seconds but were replaced by a 15-second e-gate checkpoint. For airport capacity, this is a huge improvement. For boarding, in some examples, double or even triple the boarding speed was achieved since larger percentages of passengers could use the facial biometricâ€"enabled e-gates. LATAM shared that its ground staff could manage the boarding process much better and provide a better passenger experience.

Case Study: Risk Management During COVID-19 Using Biometrics at Carrasco International Airport, Montevideo, Uruguay 193Â Â Early in 2020, the use of the technology also enabled the border control authority to initiate risk profiling (related to COVID-19) during the arrivals process (Cerri 2020). Passengers arriving from low-risk countries were able to pass through the border e-gate quickly, while passengers from higher-risk countries were easily directed to a secondary screening or additional health check. This greatly reduced the need for increased staff and other resources otherwise needed to check all passengers by their origin. This was all made possible by integrating data defined as advanced passenger information and PNR into the system platform. Responses from Passengers Passenger reviews on the new systems have been positive, even if their knowledge of how the systems worked was basic. Since the use of biometrics began in 2016, passenger satisfac- tion has been high (Mujica etÂ al. 2020). Fall-Back Options For the two biometric-enabled checkpoints, the normal legacy checkpoints are still available throughout the airport. After the implementation of the new systems in 2016, there has been a steady rise in adoption due to the phased-in availability to different nationalities and gov- ernment ID cards. As adoption keeps rising, resource allocation for the legacy checkpoints will likely decrease. Concerns The primary concerns of the government authorities were the correct and proper use of data and minding the privacy of passengers. The design of the system followed stringent require- ments to protect private information (biographic and biometric), and for stakeholders that wanted to use the EasyWeb portal, information had to be provided about how they would use the anonymized data and for what purpose. For several third-party stakeholders, the data were used for making the airport better in terms of passenger services, shorter waiting times, and improvements across the entire airport system. If stakeholders shared their intended use of the non-PPI information, then they were allowed to join and have access to the portal. In this instance, the government agencies maintained control over the admissions. No other concerns were voiced by the airport authority, either regarding the communication or education of passengers or violations of their privacy rights. Lessons Learned The main lessons learned were related to the following: â€¢ It proved beneficial to be able to leverage security improvements in the business case with stakeholders for collaboration. â€¢ Several iterations were needed to improve the capturing of facial biometrics: influenced by lighting, time of day, face masks, and user feedback. â€¢ Not all airlines were initially rushing to implement and collaborate, but COVID-19 and the new focus on health measures changed that. â€¢ Limited eligibility of passports caused a slow increase in passenger adoption. A lesson learned from discussions with potential airline stakeholders was that, rather than just the ROI, the improved security also proved of high importance in encouraging participa- tion in the collaboration (Cabrera 2020). Government agencies noted that the improvement in security was a major driver.

194 Airport Biometrics: A Primer The capturing of facial biometrics with cameras installed at the e-gates was improved several times after learning the influence of lighting (time of day, light conditions outside, added lighting in the e-gates) as well as the sudden mandatory use of masks to prevent the spread of COVID-19. In the latter case, the actual algorithm for comparing and matching the biometrics was changed to meet the required standards. In addition, due to communication with airport staff and passengers, the e-gate went through several iterations of design. This changed the method of capture of the facial images as well as the interaction of passengers with the e-gate. Some examples of design changes were changes to the messaging, the layout of the touchscreen, and the overall lighting conditions at the e-gate. Initially, not all airlines were in a hurry to implement the program. Air Europa and LATAM wanted to introduce the new systems primarily to reduce staff, increase efficiencies, and improve safety and security. These airlines already had a strong digital and online presence, so facilitating online check-in and such was already part of their processes. For smaller and more local airlines, participation in the project would cause them to have to upgrade their back-end systems. This meant these airlines would first have to invest in their own systems. With developments around COVID-19 and the move toward touchless passenger facilitation, many more airlines have joined the project. The use of the e-gates was first limited to those with Uruguayan e-passports, accounting for about 15% to 20% of all passengers, followed by those with Brazilian and Argentinian e-passports, which accounted for another 10% to 15%. In time, Uruguayan ID cards were also allowed since travel within South America does not require passengers to have a passport. Thereafter, passengers with e-passports from countries not requiring visas were also allowed to use the e-gates. This caused a slow increase in technology adoption. Theoretical coverage of users is 97%, but a large percentage of the Brazilian population traveling to Uruguay does not have a passport, only an ID card, and these are not updated. In this case, the policy of a different country to not have up-to-date identification documents influenced the adoption rate in Montevideo. Real user adoption rates were closer to 50% at the time of writing. Findings and Trends Findings Easy Airport presents the ability to meet different airline business cases and strategic objectives such as resource and time savings. It also presents the opportunity to install state-of-the-art technology and infrastructure to meet the airportâ€™s future demand. The added data portals for airlines and other stakeholders is a bonus and delivers anonymized data streams. Easy Airport was used during the COVID-19 pandemic in risk profiling passengers into specific categories automatically and notifying border agents of passengers entering the country from specific origins. Those passengers underwent a different health screening process. Some key lessons learned for the airport authority and implementing teams were around the protection of passenger privacy and information (as well as transmission of such information to foreign governments) especially regarding legal frameworks between the project stakeholders. Future Situation and Broader Implementation According to MVD, one future consideration is looking into including children in the pro- gram since, at the time of writing, e-passports were only available for citizens 18Â year or older. This would greatly improve the passenger experience because travelers with children have to use the legacy system and verify their identity with regular identity cards or passports.

Case Study: Risk Management During COVID-19 Using Biometrics at Carrasco International Airport, Montevideo, Uruguay 195Â Â The use of facial recognition has also been considered for the pre-security check. This could shift the location for the enrollment to earlier in the passenger journey. The aim is to allow all touchpoints in the passenger journey to be used with the Easy Airport biometric solutions. Trends Identified The main trend identified in this case study is the increased use of biometric solutions to improve the passenger experience, create a seamless journey, and allow for less physical inter- action with ground staff and touchpoints. The Easy Airport passenger journey in Montevideo is moving in the direction of becoming completely touchless, although several points of inter- action still exist. Integration with other airport authorities and possibly the increased use of mobile devices will see this trend continue.

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Read "Airport Biometrics: A Primer" at NAP.edu

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Read chapter Appendix H - Case Study: Risk Management During COVID-19 Using Biometrics at Carrasco International Airport, Montevideo, Uruguay: Biometrics ...