Lufthansa has begun using biometric self-boarding gates at Los Angeles International Airport (LAX), the carrier said March 19.
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.
During initial trials at LAX, Lufthansa said it could board approximately 350 passengers onto an Airbus A380 in about 20 minutes. Lufthansa flies a daily direct LAX-Frankfurt route out of LAX’s Tom Bradley International Terminal (TBIT/Terminal B).
The airline said it plans to expand the technology to additional US gateways and other passenger touchpoints, “[paving] the way for other airlines using Amadeus’ Altéa technology to rapidly deploy biometrics boarding for their own passengers.”
“We anticipate that in near time, biometric boarding … will be widely utilized across the US and beyond,” Lufthansa senior director-product management ground & digital services Bjoern Becker said.
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.
