Brisbane Airport has become the first in Australia to trial facial recognition technology.

In partnership with Air New Zealand, the airport is now utilising SITA’s “Smart Path” biometric technology at its check-in kiosks and boarding gates. The idea is to allow passengers to move more smoothly and securely through the airport, reducing queues.

“We’re always striving to improve the airport experience at Brisbane Airport and this trial will allow us to test and refine new technology that we hope will make standard check-in and boarding processes more efficient and secure in the very near future,” said Roel Hellemons, general manager of strategic planning & development for Brisbane Airport Corporation.

“A key benefit of working with SITA is its technology integrates with our existing common-use infrastructure – check-in kiosks and boarding gates – and can be used by any airline that operates on a common-use kiosk. As we progress we hope to integrate with various government systems for immigration and border checks,” he added.

The facial recognition technology can be integrated into the airport’s existing passenger solutions. Once the passenger’s travel documents are linked to their biometric details during the check-in process, the passenger can be automatically tracked using facial recognition technology as he or she moves through the airport, from check-in to boarding.

Air New Zealand passengers will be the first to trial Smart Path at Brisbane Airport, with plans to expand the service to more international airlines in the coming months. SITA and the airport will also work together to expand the use of the biometric technology into new areas in future.

“Australia has long been recognised as a leader in secure border management and passenger processing. Now Brisbane Airport is leading the way with SITA Smart Path. This is a single, secure, self-service process which simplifies passenger processing for everyone – airlines, airports and border authorities. It is early days at Brisbane Airport but already the response from passengers has been positive,” said Sumesh Patel, SITA’s president for Asia Pacific.