What Does the Future of Travel Look Like?

As the summer travel season kicks off, consumers are ready to take to the skies to get away to relaxing vacations. The only problem? Getting there.

A new consumer survey released by iProov, the world leader in biometric face authentication technology, found that travelers do not find the airport check-in process a relaxing first step to a destination. In fact, a majority of those surveyed would prefer to streamline the process to go straight from their couch at home to the gate in as few steps as possible.

Eighty-five percent (85%) of the 16,000 respondents in eight countries would use or would consider using a ticket/ID check from home. Further, 70% of respondents said the first step of the journey–waiting in long check-in lines–is the most annoying part of traveling.

So, how can airports and airlines reduce the bottlenecks during journeys using check-from-home services to make the travel experience more convenient for consumers? Secure remote verification technology enables travelers to complete their ticket and ID checks from the comfort of their homes, so they don’t need to do it at the airport. The key to this process is facial biometric verification and authentication.

Related: Survey: Gas Prices, Inflation Impacting Summer Travel Decisions More Than Covid

“Secure verification technology enables travelers to complete their ticket and ID checks from the comfort of their homes, so they don’t need to do it at the airport,” said Andrew Bud, Founder and CEO of iProov. “Facial biometric verification and authentication are key to this process. Face verification has already proved to be a secure and accessible solution for many applications and processes–for example, nearly a third of consumers are already using face verification to access their mobile banking apps. We’ve shown that online face verification can be applied to improve the consumer travel experience, making life easier for travelers and operators around the world.”

iProov’s Genuine Presence Assurance® offers a brief, passive face scan that confirms a remote traveler is a right person, matching the identity to a trusted identity document and ticket. The technology also verifies that a user is a real person and not a presentation attack using a photo or mask and that they are authenticating in real-time. At the airport, a traveler’s face is their ticket as they choose to pass through a biometric corridor and authenticate their identity.

This technology solution is not unique to the airline industry and can be applied to eliminate check-in bottlenecks for other forms of travel, including trains, cruise ships, car hires, and more. In fact, earlier this year, iProov partnered with Eurostar for the successful trial of a remote fast-track service, SmartCheck, showing that the future of travel is not so distant.

To learn more about iProov and the future of travel, please visit the Biometric Travel & Check-In section of our website.

Methodology

This report is based on research carried out by an independent agency on behalf of iProov in April–May 2022. Eight countries were included in the research (the U.S., Canada, Mexico, Germany, Italy, Spain, the UK and Australia), with 2000 consumers surveyed in each country. The 16,000 respondents were not chosen for any preferences on travel–many had never flown before.

About iProov

Launched in 2013, iProov is the world leader in online facial biometric authentication, working with governments, banks, and other enterprises to securely verify customer identity. Used for effortless onboarding and authentication, customers include the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, the UK Home Office, the UK National Health Service (NHS), the Australian Taxation Office, GovTech Singapore, Rabobank, ING, and others. iProov’s technologies include Liveness Assurance™ and Genuine Presence Assurance®, which ensures that an online customer is the right person, a real person, and is authenticating right now. This protects against spoof attacks from photos, videos, masks, digital injection attacks, and the emerging threat of deep fakes. iProov was recognized as a Gartner Cool Vendor 2020 in Identity Access Management & Fraud Detection. For more information, please see www.iProov.com or follow us on LinkedIn or Twitter.