Lufthansa announced a pilot program to test biometric boarding at Los Angeles International Airport.
After a trial period at LAX, the carrier plans to roll out the procedure to other airports across the United States. During an initial trial the airline was able to board nearly 350 passengers onto an Airbus A380 in approximately 20 minutes.
Lufthansa’s self-service gates—deploying facial recognition technology to automate the passenger identification and boarding pass verification process—was developed in collaboration with Amadeus, provider of Lufthansa’s Altéa passenger service and departure control system, US Customs and Border Protection (CBP), LAX and biometric facial recognition systems provider Vision-Box.
After the image is matched, the system recognizes the passenger as boarded, and the passenger can board the plane without the use of a boarding pass or passport.
Lufthansa flies a daily direct LAX-Frankfurt route out of LAX’s Tom Bradley International Terminal (TBIT/Terminal B).
British Airways began testing biometric boarding on international flights out of LAX in December 2017, with Vision-Box branded platforms installed at TBIT gates 152, 154 and 156.
