Berlin Brandenburg Airport (BER) has introduced BER Traveller – a digital service for biometric access control. Lufthansa Group airlines passengers who are HON Circle Members and Senators can use the service, including those travelling with Lufthansa, SWISS, Austrian Airlines, Brussels Airlines and Eurowings.
These travellers now have fast access to priority security control via a separate lane using facial recognition. The only requirement is a one-time registration of their biometric data in the service provider’s app, FastID.
“We are improving our passengers travel experience in the long-term through contactless, biometric services since they make airport processes simpler and more efficient,” said Heike Birlenbach, Head of Customer Experience, Lufthansa Group. “I am pleased that we can now also offer this innovative service to our HON Circle Members and Senators in Berlin. Our customers greatly appreciate this new service at all locations where biometric checks have already been introduced.”
Lufthansa Group and BER are expanding the range of digital services for passengers in a joint project with this new service. The next step will be making the use of BER’s self-service machines, boarding at the gate and access to the Lufthansa Group Lounge possible via facial recognition.
“We are pleased to have persuaded the Lufthansa Group, one of our most important customers, of the great potential of facial recognition for smarter passenger processes at BER,” said Thomas Hoff Anderson, Chief Operations Officer, Flughafen Berlin Brandenburg GmbH. “This is a good basis for being able to offer the new ‘BER Traveller’ product to other airlines’ passengers as well. FastID is the right partner to help us make departures from BER faster and easier thanks to the opportunities offered by digital facial recognition.”
Use of the new biometric service is completely voluntary. Personal and biometric data is stored de-centrally in the passenger’s app. Travellers who have registered in the app decide again before each journey whether they want to use the service for their next flight. Only then will the data (flight data and biometric identifiers) and the photos taken later at the airport be transmitted in encrypted form to FastID for comparison. After the flight, the data is deleted from FastID and remains solely in the passenger’s app. Passengers have full control over the data in the app and can delete it completely at any time.
“The implementation at BER Airport represents a new era of identity control in travel – an era that is fully decentralised and gives individuals control over their own data,” said Albert van Veen, CEO, FastID. “With FastID, BER Airport has given passengers the option of taking back responsibility for their journey, offering biometric identification for faster and smoother travel. FastID puts the passenger at the centre of the journey, enabling a fully convenient and safe experience.”
