Yesterday, WestJet, together with TELUS, trialled Trusted Boarding, a touchless process that uses safe and secure facial verification technology to verify travellers’ identity prior to boarding a flight.
The trial was the first-of-its-kind in Canada and took place at the YYC Calgary International Airport.
“The travel experience is evolving to include many touchless processes and WestJet is innovating to ensure our guests’ travel journey improves to become more seamless and efficient, while prioritizing safety above all,” said Stuart McDonald, Executive Vice-President and Chief Information Officer.
“The Trusted Boarding trial is a union between technology and WestJet that would in the future help our agents and our guests with contactless document validation.”
WestJet’s Trusted Boarding trial demonstrated that the responsible use of biometric boarding technology provides sufficient document validation and prevents non-authorized individuals from boarding an aircraft.
Trial guests boarded WestJet flight 8901 through facial verification with their digital identity wallet on Embross’ Canadian made biometric hardware and boarding application at Gate 88.
“As air travel gradually reopens, the passenger experience continues to evolve,” said Ibrahim Gedeon, Chief Technology Officer, TELUS.
“Our groundbreaking, built in Canada solution allows travellers to enjoy a secure, touchless identity verification experience, while ensuring they are able to maintain control of their personal data.
“This level of control establishes and increases consumer trust by addressing privacy, security, and ethical data risks from the start, while providing transparency to customers.”
