Starting of a journey should be even faster and more customer-friendly in the future. Lufthansa is working on new innovative solutions for smooth and rapid service on the ground after testing a biometrics boarding procedure on simulated flights. The trial was part of the federal government’s “Innovation Drive for Germany”.

The airline passenger’s fingerprint, together with the check-in data, is converted into a two-dimensional barcode and printed on the boarding card. During the simulated boarding of a total of almost 400 Lufthansa employees, a scanner compared the information recorded on the boarding card with the print of the same finger. After the scanner recognises the fingerprint, the passenger can

proceed to board the aircraft without any further controls. It is thus possible to confirm that the passenger who checked-in and the person travelling aboard the aircraft are one and the same person. The two-dimensional barcode is recommended by IATA as the industry standard and Lufthansa will for the first time extend it worldwide to include a biometric characteristic. The airline thus aims to improve its quality of service even before departure: a decisive argument for business travellers and frequent flyers.

Lufthansa will evaluate the results of the completed series of tests, and has yet to reach a decision on the introduction of the procedure.