Istanbul (AFP)

In the TAV Airports innovation center in Istanbul, facial recognition is the key to a future airport with a streamlined passenger journey: a simple look at a sensor makes it possible to go through all the stages, from check-in to boarding. .

In this airport tomorrow, the passenger will present at a terminal his passport whose photograph will be cross-checked with the biometric data of his face seized by a sensor at the check-in, at the baggage check, at the border control and finally at the boarding.

From January, the ADP Group, whose Turkish group TAV is a subsidiary since 2017, will deploy this technology to Paris-Orly in partnership with Air France.

"We are going to experiment with a + process + in which facial recognition is used for registration and boarding procedures," explains Edward Arkwright, ADP Group Executive Director, Manager of Orly and Charles-de-Gaulle (CDG). ) and 22 other platforms worldwide, including 14 operated by TAV Airports.

The experimentation must take place over one year in a targeted manner and complements the process of facial recognition already existing at border control, with 102 sas equipped with this technology since summer 2017 in both Paris airports.

In France, the Commission Nationale Informatique et Liberté (CNIL) authorized this test on the condition that the passenger has given his prior consent, that the biometric data be deleted immediately after the aircraft takes off and that they can not be reused by ADP for other flights or other purposes, such as commercial proposals.

- Passengers "technophiles" -

The aim of the experiment is both to assess the level of "acceptability" by the passenger and to "measure the gains in operational efficiency", says Mr. Arkwright, welcoming the time saved at the border crossing. : it takes 10 to 15 seconds with facial recognition against 30 to 45 seconds with digital biometrics.

Passengers "are less stressed when technology makes it easier for them to pass through passport control," said Sita, a provider of IT solutions for the airline industry.

According to Sita data, the "use of automated passport control has almost doubled" in 2018 compared to 2017, with 44% of users.

By 2025, "68% of passengers will be technophiles" who demand "more automation and autonomy in controlling every step of their journey," said the company.

Airports are destined to become increasingly congested as a result of an exponential growth in traffic, which is expected to double by 2037 to reach 8.3 billion passengers a year, at an average annual rate of 3.5 % increase.

In this context, the "fluidity of the passenger route" combined with a faster rotation of aircraft should allow, according to Mr. Arkwright, to optimize existing structures and postpone the deadline for the construction of new airports.

In the long term, the ideal sought by ADP is that of a "seamless" journey, like the one simulated in Istanbul.

"The priority now is to ensure that there is a regulation to accompany this vision of a paperless travel experience, which will also ensure that passenger data is well protected," said the director general of the International Air Transport Association, Alexandre de Juniac, quoted in a statement.

As for the possible effects on the evolution of the traffic of increasing environmental pressures, Mr. Arkwright considers that "we do not see any change of behavior today".

© 2019 AFP