South Korea’s Gimpo Airport has today announced that it has installed biometric self-boarding services for domestic flights with flag-carrier Korean Air.
What benefit does this have to passengers?
To pass through Korean Air’s domestic boarding gates, passengers just need to scan their palm without presenting an actual boarding pass, due to the use of the biometric solution. This works by scanning the passengers palm vein, enabling the airline to immediately verify the passengers I.D. and boarding pass without the hassle of handling paper documents or phone passes.
Pre-registered palm vein information is how the palm scanning device works, with everyone having unique vein information. This was introduced as a way to strengthen the identity security and increase airport efficiency, therefore reducing flight boarding times.
This service is available to all Korean citizens over the age of seven. Self- registration desks have also been installed for passengers to register their palm vein information, which can be done by registering with an ID card.
Korean Air has partnered with Korea Airports Corporation from August 2021, and together, they’ve cooperated on the system buildup and testing required to launch the biometric self-boarding service. If the rollout is successful, the airline plans to expand the service to all depatture gates serving domestic routes at Gimpo Airport by the end of 2022 – with further expansion to Busan Gimhae Airport in August 2022.
OneID – The Technology Behind the System
The airline is also introducing biometric information-based technologies, the core of IATA’s One ID initiative; One ID is an integrated identification initiative using passengers’ biometric information to achieve interoperable system coordination between airports, airlines and governments around the world. OneID’s facial recognition services are already provided and operated by overseas airports authorities in Atlanta, Los Angeles, New York and Singapore.
