DE
28. April 2022
"Camera on" is from now on the motto at Hamburg Airport. After a successful introductory phase, the Star Alliance biometric face field recognition system is now officially launched there. With the new service, participating passengers from Austrian, SWISS and Lufthansa will be able to pass through security and boarding contactless and quick. In future, a single glance will suffice - without a boarding pass or smartphone.
Interested participants of the loyalty programme Miles & More need to register once for Star Alliance Biometrics at least 24 hours before their next Austrian, Lufthansa or SWISS flight. To do so, they need their valid passport and the latest version of the Lufthansa App or Miles & More App. As soon as they have registered, they can pass through the central security checkpoint and the boarding gates A17 and C16 at Hamburg Airport without contact. The entrances at the gate and at the fast lanes of the central security checkpoint are clearly marked. Their face is automatically captured by the camera installed there and compared with your stored image. The travelers can keep their mouth-nose coverings, which they currently have to wear in the terminal for health protection. If there is a positive match, the entrances open automatically.
The Star Alliance Biometrics platform, on which the technology is based, was already successfully launched in November 2020 at the Frankfurt, Munich and Vienna hubs with the aim of providing passengers with a seamless travel experience. Hamburg Airport is thus the fourth participating airport. Once registered, passengers can use biometric access at all participating airports.
The identification solution used in Star Alliance Biometrics is powered by NEC I: Delight facial recognition technology from Japan's NEC Corporation and is available to Miles & More participants who have agreed to the use of their biometric data during the travel process.
Personal data - such as photos and other identifiers - are encrypted and stored securely within the platform. The system has been developed from the outset in compliance with applicable data protection laws and based on the latest facial recognition technology. The storage of personal data is kept to a necessary minimum. For example, no customer names are stored.
“We are delighted that Lufthansa, Austrian and SWISS are now also offering Star Alliance facial recognition at Hamburg Airport,” says Mirjam Fröhlich, Head of Passenger and Baggage Management at Hamburg Airport. “This is a plus in convenience for participating passengers entering the security checkpoint and at selected gates. The new technology offers additional time savings and makes the checking process at central points of the airport even smoother, which is just what our passengers want.”
Falk Durm, Head of Ground & Airport Experience Lufthansa Group, emphasizes: "In the Lufthansa Group, biometric offers will increasingly provide for simplified and more efficient contactless processes at the airports and thus significantly improve the travel experience of our passengers. I am pleased that we can now also offer our guests Star Alliance Biometrics in Hamburg after the successful start in Frankfurt, Munich and Vienna.”
Star Alliance VP Customer Experience, Christian Draeger added, “We are delighted to expand our state-of-the-art Star Alliance Biometrics to Hamburg Airport. We welcome more passengers to the future of air travel that is inspired by contactless and seamless experiences. We are committed to the cause and are progressively widening our biometrics footprint. We hope to see more member airlines and partner airports adopt the technology in the times to come.”
All information on the service as well as answers to frequently asked questions can be found here: https://www.lufthansa.com/de/de/star-alliance-biometrics
Photo credits:
The Star Alliance network was established in 1997 as the first truly global airline alliance, based on a customer value proposition of global reach, worldwide recognition and seamless service. Since inception, it has offered the largest and most comprehensive airline network, with a focus on improving customer experience across the Alliance journey. The member airlines are: Aegean Airlines, Air Canada, Air China, Air India, Air New Zealand, ANA, Asiana Airlines, Austrian, Avianca, Brussels Airlines, Copa Airlines, Croatia Airlines, EGYPTAIR, Ethiopian Airlines, EVA Air, LOT Polish Airlines, Lufthansa, Scandinavian Airlines, Shenzhen Airlines, Singapore Airlines, South African Airways, SWISS, TAP Air Portugal, THAI, Turkish Airlines, and United. Overall, the Star Alliance network currently offers more than 12,000 daily flights to almost 1,300 airports in 197 countries. Further connecting flights are offered by Star Alliance Connecting Partners Juneyao Airlines and THAI Smile Airways.
The Lufthansa Group is the aviation group with the world's largest turnover and one of the world's leading airline groups. The companies of the Lufthansa Group stand for safety, quality, reliability and innovation. The Group aims to be "the first choice in air travel" for its customers, employees, shareholders and partners.
With more than 17 million passengers in 2019 and around 5.3 million passengers in the pandemic year of 2021, Hamburg Airport is the fifth busiest airport in Germany. With the regions of Hamburg, Schleswig-Holstein and parts of Lower Saxony, Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania and Denmark, Hamburg Airport has a large catchment area whose passenger potential is of great interest to all airlines. Hamburg Airport is equipping itself with a modern infrastructure to meet all future challenges of air traffic. Approximately 15,000 employees work for nearly 250 companies on the airport premises (around 1,870 for the airport itself). The shareholders of the partially-privatized airport are the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg with 51 percent and AviAlliance GmbH with 49 percent.
If you have any further questions, please contact:
Star Alliance Press Office
Phone: +49 69 96375 183
E-Mail: mediarelations@staralliance.com
Web: www.staralliance.com
Deutsche Lufthansa AG
Media Relations
Phone: +49 696 2999
E-mail: lufthansa-group@dlh.de
Web: www.lufthansa.com
