KUALA LUMPUR: AirAsia Group has unveiled its Fast Airport Clearance Experience System (FACES), Malaysia’s first airport facial recognition system with self-boarding gate, making it the first airline in Asia to offer the latest biometric facial recognition technology.
Fully owned and operated by AirAsia, the airline said FACES uses facial recognition technology to identify enrolled guests as they approach the automated boarding gate, allowing them to board their flight without having to present any travel documents.
AirAsia Group chief executive officer and AirAsia X co-group CEO Tan Sri Tony Fernandes said FACES marks its latest effort to make the on-ground experience more seamless and less stressful by using cutting edge biometric technology to authenticate guests.
“With FACES, your face is your passport, making it a breeze to clear the gate and board your flight. We hope the success of FACES here will serve as an inspiration and we are keen to work with other airports in Malaysia to revolutionise the way people travel with this technology and make flying enjoyable again,” he said.
MMC Corp Bhd group managing director Datuk Seri Che Khalib Mohamad Noh said Senai Airport is selected as the first airport in Malaysia to pilot this cutting-edge technology.
“The initiative will further enhance our passenger’s travelling experience and airport operations efficiency with faster security and screening processes, specifically to accommodate the growing number of passengers travelling through this airport.
“We are forecasting the passenger traffic to increase by 16 per cent to 3.6million this year,” he said.
Guests simply have to place their MyKad or chip-enabled passport in the document reader and look at the camera to create their biometric token.
Available for guests aged 18 and above, the enrolment is a one-time process, after which guests may use AirAsia’s biometric gates for all flights as long as their identity document remains valid.
Upon expiry of the identity document, guests will need to update the enrolment record with a new valid document.
Enrolled guests will also benefit from an expedited process at the security checkpoint, in addition to boarding the flight seamlessly.
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