Vueling expanding facial recognition passenger processing

Spanish airline Vueling deployed facial recognition technology, initially implementing the voluntary usage at Josep Tarradellas Barcelona-El Prat, Adolfo Suárez Madrid-Barajas, Palma de Mallorca, Menorca and Ibiza airports in a first phase, which started last November, and in the next few weeks is set to incorporate the system into the airports of Tenerife North and Gran Canaria.

Vueling is the first airline to offer the facial recognition system in Spain, based on identification technology through the recognition of physical and non-transferable characteristics of people, and takes the customer experience and digitalisation one step further, being the first to integrate this technology into its own application.

With the implementation of this system, Vueling continues to advance, being a pioneer in digitalisation and innovation. It was the first airline to sell tickets through the mobile application and to have a digital boarding pass with QR code. Likewise, the airline has the largest innovation hub in the sector in Spain.

The facial recognition system allows Vueling passengers to complete the entire journey, from security control to the plane, ‘by face’. That is, without the need to show documentation or the boarding pass.

This makes it possible to streamline the entire process and increase security from the moment the traveller registers – online through the application when checking in or at airport kiosks – and until they take their flight. In this first phase, biometrics will be available in security filters and at a set of selected boarding gates with flights to national and international destinations subject to availability.

In addition, Vueling customers must register only once for the biometric system. For subsequent flights, it will only be necessary to activate facial recognition once you have checked in within ‘Manage your reservation’. The integration of biometrics in the Vueling application is key to the customer experience to further facilitate the process.

According to Rodolfo Moreira, director of Customer Experience at Vueling, “being the first airline to offer a complete biometric experience to passengers in Spain is a huge source of pride for us, but this deployment is great news for our customers. This technology clearly improves their experience at the airport, making the steps and procedures to follow much simpler, easier and faster and, therefore, we are helping them gain time and comfort when taking a plane.”

As the airline explains in a statement, biometrics will become, in the coming years, the standard for travel, digitising and streamlining the processes for traveling within an airport.

Therefore, the deployment of this technology is a milestone in innovation for both Vueling and Aena, since it is the first time that the airport operator’s airports offer this service to airline passengers throughout the entire flight circuit journey. The system has been implemented after passing a pilot test. This collaboration project began two years ago with passengers of the airline on the Barcelona-Málaga route.

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