OSIModel

I see no reason why people can pre-verify them selves at random places in the airport or at check-in/bag drop and when you board it's just verifying you are the person that was verified by a human at the bag drop counter or what ever. .

Calchas

I doubt that you can use any old passport/ID card/laissez-passer/whatever photo as a reference for automatic biometric capture. Even UK passports, which you might think would be under tight quality control, are not used for this: the e-gates at immigration are actually monitored by a person who watches the cameras on a screen.

So instead you'd have to roll out the biometric capture at these pre-verification stages you suggest, which could be slower than just checking it by a human at the gate. Especially as many international departures do not require a visa check, so this would be a pointless diversion.

Again here, I doubt we will see them for international flights (except Dublin) because the biometric data is not available for international departures.

BAAZ

I flew ZRH-LHR with LX last week. They boarded status pax (business class, Star Alliance cards, etc) the old fashioned way, and then when they'd all been boarded, they activated the two automatic boarding gates which we used to board.

fransknorge

This is common procedure at FRA: human boarding for Priority, automatic gates for the remaining customers. This means enforcement is down to the agent, and not the gate.

windowontheAside

I remember years ago catching a flight from a pretty small airport in Norway (I think?). I was surprised to be fingerprinted at check-in but then discovered boarding was fully automated based on matching fingerprints. It seemed quick and logical and I am surprised that it hasn't caught on.

Fitch

I may have misunderstood but I thought the only check performed at the gate was a visual match of the surnames on BP and passport.

No photo comparison (except on domestics) and no doc check as you don't get a BP unless you see someone first...

So the gates would be more than capable of machine-reading the 2 lines of text on the photo page and matching to name on booking... no fancy biometric footwork required

Certainly every time I fly to the US, my passport gets no more than a cursory glance at the T5 gate...

Calchas

Actually you're right on the first score, no need for biometrics at all on international departures.

No I remember why I said that now. You need to make sure people don't swap passports once airside. Either that means a human check against the photo at boarding or you have to do something sophisticated like biometrics capture and comparison.

That said, you can certainly get a BP without a doc check. Most obviously a mobile phone BP.

DrBernardo

Am I being a bit thick here? Why wouldn't BA just be able to check your passport/ID card at check-in or at a special desk in the security line, and take your photo at the same time (just the same as is done at security for domestic travellers).

The gate machines then just make sure then that you are the same person, with the same boarding card, as you were when your passport was checked.

If the system for domestics is deemed reliable enough to prevent people who don't have permission to enter the UK from doing so, I can't see why the same system wouldn't be approved for (at least some) international flights...

Calchas

You've just moved the problem from the gate to the pre-security area.

You'll still need a person to make sure the documents are okay and that the documents match the person. Only then can the biometric be stored against the document. And this has to all be done at the same time, otherwise person A can get his docs approved against the passport, and then swap with person B for the biometric scan. Person B gets on the plane despite not looking anything like person's A passport picture.

Now okay doing all three at once is not a big deal, but it isn't really clear to me what problem has been solved: why not just move the person to the gate and forget the biometrics stuff?

The difference from domestics is that there are no passports or documents to care about so it can be automated without human intervention.

HIDDY

Is the gate boarding check of passports for International flights not to find out if you've still got your passport on you and not lost it along the way?

Rami Tamimi

I beleive it's to check that you have the right to enter the arriving country.

Flying BA from DME,your docs will be checked 3 times . First time,before you enter the check in queue (there is a dedicated person just for that),second time by the check in agent and the third time at the gate....and these folks ask more questions than LHR immigration officers do.

At the same time,flying BA to Mainland Europe,no one seems to be intrested much in my visa.

AlienInTheFatherland

Quite correct! However, the human at the priority gate merely swishes your BP across the machine and doesn't (ever/usually) check your priority status. I don't believe said machine is capable of identifying whether you are priority or not!

Fitch

Well, lots of interesting info about how the process should work, but I wonder if it is quite so clear in reality.

In hundreds of flights I don't remember ever noticing ground staff for a BA flight checking that I look like my passport picture.

In fact with my last one the photo was taken before I lost 3 stone and I quite often got additional scrutiny and the odd comment at the border... but never a word at the gate.

It would be interesting to know from a member of staff what BA's gate SOP actually is.

antichef

Signs are in the background of your photo posted here!!

rossmacd

This is how it works at ZRH on LX, week in, week out - completely consistently.

On a UK (or CTA) bound flights, there is sometimes a couple of officials checking passports match boarding cards, but I am assuming this is random as it does not always happen.