Today, Delta Air Lines, in partnership with U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP), Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport (ATL) and the Transportation Security Administration (TSA), unveiled the first biometric terminal in the United States at Maynard H. Jackson International Terminal (Terminal F) in Atlanta.
This means that customers flying direct to an international destination on Delta, Aeromexico, Air France, KLM or Virgin Atlantic Airways can use facial recognition technology from curb to gate, including to:
- Check in at the self-service kiosks in the International lobby
- Drop checked baggage at the counters in the International lobby
- Serve as identification at the TSA checkpoint
- Board a flight at any gate in Terminal F
- And, go through CBP processing for international travelers arriving into the U.S.
Touch points throughout the terminal in Atlanta started coming online in mid-October – nearly all 25,000 customers who travel through ATL Terminal F each week are choosing this optional process, with less than 2 percent opting out. And, based on initial data, the facial recognition option is saving an average of two seconds for each customer at boarding, or nine minutes when boarding a wide body aircraft.
West added that Delta plans to scale the end-to-end airport biometric terminal experience to the global airline’s hub in Detroit in 2019.
