Star Alliance has announced a new partnership with Amadeus, which will enable travellers enrolled in Star Alliance Biometrics or in Amadeus Traveler ID to access a growing number of airports where identity verification can be utilised during their journey.
By joining forces with Amadeus, Star Alliance aims to create a more global, frictionless, and touchless journey for the frequent flyers enrolled in the respective programmes of its member airlines.
Star Alliance Biometrics, launched last month, allows passengers to pass through various touchpoints within airports, such as check-in kiosks, bag drop, and boarding gates, which traditionally require both passport and boarding pass, by using a secure identity management solution featuring facial recognition technology. This allows for a touchless experience at airports, which has become an important safety feature during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Meanwhile, Amadeus’ secure and agnostic identity data exchange and verification solution, Traveler ID, enables a simplified experience across the entire travel chain by connecting a passenger’s digital ID to any online and biometric portal.
In the future, passengers will be able to use their Traveler ID to also access existing or new airports that have implemented the Star Alliance Biometrics solution.
In both programmes, travellers need to give their consent to share their biometric data with the stakeholders of their choice in full accordance with data privacy regulations.
Christian Draeger, Vice President Customer Experience, Star Alliance, commented: “The best part of this trustful partnership is how we are building upon our individual strengths and working together to deliver a more seamless and safe travel experience. It increases our operational ability by speeding up airport processes and immediately benefits those who have already enrolled in our programme. Through collaboration between the Star Alliance Biometrics and Amadeus Traveler ID solutions, we have a winning proposition that will encompass all aspects of the customer journey.”
Monika Wiederhold, EVP Airlines Central & Eastern Europe, Amadeus, added: “The Traveler ID solution is agnostic, meaning that all types of travel companies can work with us for a variety of digital identity needs, from enrolling travellers, to organising the collaboration of multiple providers to orchestrate the end-to-end identity verification process. Ultimately, our objective with Traveler ID is to help the industry deploy frictionless travel throughout the whole passenger journey. We can only achieve this through collaboration with travel industry partners, which is why we are so pleased to work with Star Alliance to bring this vision to life.”
