Airport_Business_June-July_2019 - 25

COVER STORY
front of them and about a 60 percent
chance if they do know the person. As
the day wears on, Hutchinson said that
number goes down as staff gets tired.
"From the enhancement of the
passenger journey, more and more
people are interested in it because the
future is bright for how the technology
can be used," he said. "Imagine going to
a VIP lounge even in a smaller or midsize
airport where you wouldn't have to stop
and talk to the individual at the front
desk and pull out your passport and your
boarding pass. It would be automated.
You simply walk in and have a drink or
a plate of food."
The Metropolitan Washington
Airports Authority (MWAA) created and
implemented its own biometrics system
in 2018 called veriScan.
Goutam Kundu, senior vice president
of technology and chief information
officer for MWAA, said leaders opted to
build the program after they were unable
to find a product on the market to fit the
needs of the airport.
Kundu said the veriScan system
utilizes iPads with software loaded
onto them. They take facial biometric
information and verify it without
needing to reconfigure the terminal.
"These gates are not configured for
these elaborate mantraps," he said. "The
biggest expense for airports is the physical
infrastructure. Bringing cable, bringing
conduit into these gates."
Since implemented, Kundu said
the system has a 98.5 percent accuracy
rate with more than 111,000 passengers
having used it. MWAA is working with
airlines to utilize the system in other ways
to utilize it.
"This is sophisticated software loaded
onto an iPad. How simple is that," he
said. "It can be deployed within a week
at over 100 gates, it doesn't require any
cables, it doesn't require any major civil
engineering."
Stein said Orlando International
Airport has been a good example
of where leaders are working to get
everyone to embrace biometric exit
and entry. It's a growing trend that will
continue through 2019 and the next
couple years as CBP reaches for its goal
of 97 percent of all international travelers
biometrically screened through the U.S.
exit process by 2023.

MSP TRACKS ITS QUEUE
IMPROVEMENTS WITH SENSORS
AUTHOR JOE PETRIE

Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport
(MSP) turned to technology to address security
checkpoint queues by tracking the traveler.

"It was really open to rearranging," he said. "It
could adapt quickly to queue modifications and it
seemed to fit the mold."

Eduardo Valencia, chief information officers for
the Metropolitan Airports Commission, said wait
times at checkpoints and check-in areas of the
airport were causing concerns, but there was a
lack of information on determining how staff and
TSA agents were handling the flow of passengers.

By tracking historical data, Valencia said they can
track real time and historic data while also using
it to create predictive data as well to address
possible backups.

A Bluetooth-based technology they were using
to track the information was flawed and missing
accurate data, so they switched to a sensor-based
system
"The first time we showed this to the TSA in our
situation room when we were running the Super
Bowl, they looked at the actual checkpoints
from that perspective and said 'wow, I've never
seen anything like this,'" Valencia said. "It's very
mesmerizing from the way it takes all the dots,
which are individuals and how you can quantify,
you can rewind and review what's happened a
year ago at four in the morning."
Valencia said the Xovis system uses sensors
to quantify the throughput of checkpoints.
It gives them a visual depiction of what's
actually happening at the checkpoint; and the
quantification of the data was precise.
They take the data and meet regularly with all the
stakeholders to address issues.

"We'll start to see collaboration and
a big emphasis on how we all work
together across private sector and public
sector to help make that happen," she said.

Address public concerns
Biometrics has come under more scrutiny
by the general public in the past year,
with reports of concerns about data
collection and social media outcries.
Hutchinson said airports and airlines
are engaging the public to make sure
everyone understands the process and
that everything is transparent. They've
even put up signs in airports to explain
what facial recognition is.
"For American citizens, it is all optional,
so it's all opt-in," he said. "They make that
very explicit in the areas of the terminal
where facial recognition is being used. If
someone is uncomfortable with it, they
can opt out and default to the original
paper-based or phone-based process."
Hutchinson said the National
Institute of Standard and Technology
results being involved in those tests is
very important

It also allowed them to differentiate the wait
times between pre-check and general at the TSA
security line.
"We were not managing the lobby as effectively
as possible," Valencia said. "Some of these
stanchions get used inappropriately and people
queue up in non-efficient ways."
Valencia said MSP is expanding the system to
cover the entire lobby area to address airline
concerns with check-in wait times.
"Sometimes the checkpoints back up outside of
the physical checkpoint location and spill into
the larger lobby area and therefore we don't
have the best estimating because we can't count
people the system doesn't see," he said. "You also
understand passenger flow into location. You can
correlate it to drop-off zones, you can see it with
what you're doing at the front of the house, where
people are coming in, what kiosks and locations
they gather and for how long and how does the
queue lines evolve and mature over
time during the lifecycle of the day."

"We spend a lot of our time and effort
engaging with industry trade group and
privacy groups to make sure the best rules
and regulations are put on the books,"
he said. "We try to get involved with
that dialogue to make sure everybody
understands how the technology works."
Stein said it needs to be an opt-in
process so all participants are voluntary
and can opt-out if they're not comfortable.
When it comes to biometric exit, it's also
important to note no new information is
collected that U.S. Customs and Border
Protection doesn't already have.
Stein said the industry and the
organizations involved with rolling out
these new biometric processes need to
get the message to the public on this
technology and how it's being used.
"We work with IATA, ACI, other
groups like Biometrics Institute, the
IBIA, CBP and Congress just to make
sure the public knows and understands
and that all the due diligence is in place
to make sure the technology is being used
responsibly." 

JUNE/JULY 2019 \ AVIATIONPROS.COM / 25
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