Biometric data must be shared and treated with the utmost security, so ecosystem stakeholders can provide a seamless travel experience and collaborate safely on a better traveller experience without the need to trust a third party.

KLM has successfully completed a biometrics pilot at Aruba airport, which allowed passenger to enroll on arrival and then travel seamlessly through the airport. The pilot proved facial recognition’s potential. This seamless flow concept requires a one-time enrollment at the airport, with biometrics gates allowing the passenger to consequently pass several touchpoints (such as check-in, baggage drop off, immigration and boarding) without showing a passport or boarding pass.

Now it is time to scale up this pilot to home enrollment, border crossing or even pre-clearance. The challenge for the community is to co-create a working prototype for passengers to place biometric information on a smart device in such a way that this is GDPR-proof, interoperable and cannot be spoofed, possibly using a single token.

Would it potentially be possible to already enroll in the system at your local municipal offices, for example when picking up your passport? Part of the challenge is the sharing/communication of data from government to government (G2G), a crucial element in international travel.

KLM collaborates on biometric developments with the Dutch Ministry of Justice and Security, Ministry of Defense, the Dutch National Office for Identity Data, Schiphol Airport and the Royal Netherlands Marechaussee.