Airport biometrics experts say that over the next few decades, flyers in America will see an increase in the deployment and use of touchless digital airport identification technologies.
“It’s inevitable,” said Donnie Scott, CEO of the biometric identity solutions developer Idemia North America, which also provides TSA PreCheck enrollment services.
Scott said that he believes some airports will offer hands free travel in the next two to five years, at least to passengers who are enrolled with PreCheck. He said that such experiences will become more consistent in the next decade.
The digital airport experience would include facial identification verification or mobile ID check at bag drop and security clearance as well as at the departure gate. Checkpoints include digital passport checks for check-in as well as passport checks upon entry and departure.
Members of the Global Entry Program can already reenter the U.S. without having to use their hands. Instead of a showing a valid passport, they take a photo in a kiosk. This photo is then automatically compared to a passport image stored in the Global Entry Database.
TSA security checkpoints could be the next place to introduce touchless ID verification in the U.S. Delta and United are partnering with TSA to provide touchless security lanes.
American Airlines and Alaska Airlines will also be joining the Touchless Identity Solution Program. This program is only available for PreCheck flyers, and they must opt in to the program with the airline. Once enrolled in the program, flyers are able to go through checkpoints similar to Global Entry re-entrants.
Jason Lim, TSA’s Identity Management Capability Manager, said that touchless identification screening takes on average eight seconds per person. This compares to the 18-20 seconds it takes for checkpoints when photos are manually verified against a physical identity. Since the first TSA touchless checkpoint opened in Detroit in 2021, about 6 million travelers have been through it.
The challenge is not tech
Lim said the main challenges in bringing deployments up to scale were not technological.
“It’s all the things around the technology — the processes and the people,” he said.
“It’s scaled-up change management.”
Lim said that the addition of touchless lanes will require coordination between airports as well as airlines and TSA. TSA agents must be trained, and checkpoint configurations need to be altered. Travelers must also change.
Lim said the TSA still understands the industry’s demand for the expansion of its touchless scanning capabilities.
“We’re ready to support expansion,” he said. “But there’s a gap between ready to support and being able to support.”
The TSA faces the same funding constraints as Customs and Border Protection and the other key players in the deployment biometrics at U.S. airports. Political opposition is a third.
BiometricUpdate.com reports that in a hearing held by a House Homeland Security subcommittee in July, TSA administrator David Pekoske stated that at the current funding levels, it would be well into the 2040s before the agency could complete its rollout biometric passenger screening technologies. The $5.60 Passenger Safety Fee that travelers pay per one-way flight is used to fund these investments. Since 2013, Congress diverted a quarter of security fee revenues to the general Treasury.
Privacy advocates are the main source of political opposition to airport biometric deployments. Every session of Congress, a bill is introduced to prevent the federal government from using facial-recognition technologies, BiometricUpdate.com managing editor Chris Burt wrote. The latest one was introduced by a group of six bipartisan senators in November in the Senate.
The public appears to support biometrics. A September Ipsos report commissioned by U.S. Travel Association revealed that 79% support its use in TSA checkpoints. Alaska Airlines is one of the biometric adopters who are more aggressive. Consumer preferences and efficiencies are driving factors.
The airline currently offers remote international check-in that is biometric enabled. It plans to join the TSA’s Touchless Identity program early next year in Atlanta, Salt Lake City, and Washington, according to Kristin Olsen. She is the director of product for the digital technology customer experience at the airline. LAX, San Francisco, Portland, Ore., and Alaska’s homebase of Seattle are also in the works, once the TSA is able to facilitate digital screening at those three final airports.
Alaska has also much larger plans for the near future. The airline will implement touchless bag drops in Portland and Seattle shortly after the TSA has enabled touchless screening. Olsen added that the carrier was working with Customs and Border Protection on touchless international exits from Portland and Seattle. Alaska hopes to have a hands free journey for international flyers in Portland by the end of the year. Domestic could follow in the year 2026.
Olsen emphasized that mobile ID verification should be available at every checkpoint. She said that mobile ID verification is easier for most travelers than pulling out their physical ID. It is also more comfortable for travelers with privacy concerns about biometric identity confirmation. Currently, 12 state issue digital IDs that are accepted at TSA checkpoints through applications like Apple Wallet and Google Wallet.
Olsen stated, “My slogan is ‘Face and phone at every touchpoint before the end of ’26 or ’27’.”
“We want the guest to be able use their digital identity wherever they want.”
Scott of Idemia said that he expected select airports, along with certain airlines, to be driving early end-toend digital journeys. He listed Denver, Dallas, Atlanta, and three New York airports, JFK LaGuardia Airport, Newark and LaGuardia Airport, among those that have made substantial biometric investment.
