TSA Is Using Facial Recognition to Make Checkpoints Faster This Summer

This summer, TSA is adding another piece of technology in an attempt to make crowded airport security checkpoints even more seamless.

The new equipment, which is already rolling out to airports, is an updated ID scanner fitted with a biometric camera that uses facial recognition to verify passengers’ identities. The new machines match travelers’ facial scans to the photos on their driver’s license or passport and verifies that they’re a ticketed airline passenger. Fingerprint Time Machine

TSA Is Using Facial Recognition to Make Checkpoints Faster This Summer | Condé Nast Traveler

But what really makes the process easy is that the machines are self-service: Travelers need to simply insert their ID into the machine and look at the camera. After their identity is validated, they can proceed to the security checkpoint. The security officer has final approval, but when the system works correctly, there’s little to no interaction with the TSA agent at the podium. The few moments saved for each passenger are sure to add up to smoother operations at airports overwhelmed with travelers this summer season. (TSA Administrator David Pekoske is already predicting that the number of travelers this summer will be “comfortably above” pre-pandemic figures.)

A pilot version of the new system was trialed in the fall of 2020 at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport in Washington, D.C., as a potential solution to reduce touchpoints at the height of the pandemic. That trial was open to travelers with TSA PreCheck who wanted to volunteer; the new scanners are still voluntary but are accessible to everyone. Travelers are allowed to opt out and ask the officer at the podium for a manual identity verification.

According to the TSA, the photos from the facial scans are only used to compare to travelers’ picture IDs and are not saved or used for any other purpose. In addition to driver’s licenses and passports, the machines are able to read thousands of different types of IDs, including permanent resident cards, U.S. visas, military common access cards, and Global Entry cards.

Earlier this week, Baltimore-Washington International Airport was among the first facilities in the country to install the new scanners, which are called credential authentication technology (CAT) in industry parlance. “This technology is valuable because it enhances detection capabilities for identifying fraudulent IDs such as driver’s licenses and passports at a checkpoint and it increases efficiency by automatically verifying a passenger’s identification,” Christopher Murgia, TSA’s federal security director for Maryland, said in a release.

An earlier version of the scanner is already at many U.S. airports. The first-generation CAT machines—which don’t include facial recognition scans—were deployed last year at dozens of U.S. airports and eliminated the need for passengers to scan boarding passes at the podium pre-security. Of course, travelers should still bring a boarding pass to the airport to show to airline representatives at their departure gate in order to board the plane.

The TSA has invested $128 million in rolling out an initial batch of 1,500 of the new facial recognition scanners at 16 airports around the country—but the number of facilities with the new machines is likely to expand rapidly.

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By Suzanne Rowan Kelleher , Jessica Puckett , and Blane Bachelor

By Eric Rosen and Matt Ortile

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TSA Is Using Facial Recognition to Make Checkpoints Faster This Summer | Condé Nast Traveler