With the continued easing of travel restrictions, China is now gearing up for a strong post-pandemic recovery of air travel. To facilitate this recovery and power the continued growth of China’s significant domestic air travel market, the region’s airlines and airports are investing heavily in IT to streamline the passenger experience and fortify operations against disruption. This is according to SITA’s recently published 2022 Air Transport IT Insights report, which shows all of China’s leading airlines and 86% of airports expect their IT spend to remain the same or increase from 2022 to 2023.
Automating the Full Passenger Journey
SITA’s report says leading Chinese airports and airlines are investing heavily in IT across all aspects of the passenger journey, digitalizing the journey to run smoothly even with less staff support. The report says all of the region’s leading airlines intend to upgrade their core passenger management systems by 2025, with 90% also investing in self-service and touchless solutions.
China’s airports are ahead of the global curve on self-service implementation, with 80% to 100% having already implemented self-service technology across check-in, bag drop, bag tag and boarding. Touchless solutions and mobile applications for digital passenger services are also top areas of investment for 92% of airports, to further support convenience for passengers while freeing up staff to focus on other operational priorities.
Biometric identity management is a developing priority, with investment particularly in the use of biometric-powered e-gates at the border control and boarding stages. A full three-quarters of Chinese airports plan a single secure biometric token across all touchpoints by 2025, well ahead of the global average of 53%.
“It is exciting to see China embrace a return to international travel with the relaxation of border restrictions,” Sumesh Patel, president, Asia Pacific, SITA, said. “Many Chinese airports and airlines are embracing technology to quickly ramp up their passenger operations, with a commitment to digitalizing the passenger journey. In particular, the country’s airlines and airports have prioritized a single secure biometric token across all passenger touchpoints, suggesting more airports in the region will follow the example of pioneering end-to-end biometric implementations such as that of Beijing Capital Intl. Airport.”
Keeping Stakeholders Informed
Veridos is set to unveil its new security features specifically targeting the transparent window areas on ID documents: Amber ID, Diamond ID and Spectre ID.
While the trend in recent years has been to use transparent elements on polycarbonate ID documents, Veridos says it aims to further enhance these security features by adding more complexity. The goal is to produce documents that are easy to verify and at the same time difficult to duplicate. With the aim of protecting ID documents against counterfeiting, Amber ID, Diamond ID and Spectre ID are the latest in a long list of new techniques and technologies developed by Veridos in the field of document security.
Amber ID appears as a metallic, optically variable window with a positive-brilliant photo of the document owner. When backlit, the window with the motif becomes almost transparent, while in front light it looks like a golden metal leaf that turns green depending on the viewing angle. As the pigments are integrated and not printed, it is the ideal solution for a brilliant personalization in a transparent window.
The Diamond ID feature helps to unambiguously verify questionable documents. It is fully transparent in daylight, while it glows brilliant white under UV light in synergies with laser engraving, thanks to special smart colour technology developed in collaboration with C.S.T (Crime Science Technology).
Spectre ID, on the other hand, is a further development of Veridos’ Magic ID feature, which sets static images in motion. When the card is tilted, the images appear to move. Thanks to Spectre ID, this effect can now also be applied to the transparent window areas of cards and data pages in combination with the repeated holder’s image.
As the latest generation of transparent security elements, the new functions embody an evolution for ID documents. A modular system makes it possible to combine these functions. This also applies to Veridos’ “Look ID” feature, the transparent stripe, spanning the entire data page, which is used in the current passport of Latvia for example.
Thanks to the variety of options for securing transparent windows and the built-in technologies, document forgery becomes more difficult and its detection easier. Veridos’ use of polycarbonate ensures complete fusion of the plastic layers in each card, making it very difficult to manipulate materials or security attributes without leaving visible traces.
“With our new security features, we are armed with a whole range of countermeasures to address the threat of counterfeit identity documents,” explains Andreas Kuba, global vice president identity documents at Veridos. “In that way, we are helping to limit identity theft and also responding to the market demand for innovative security features for transparent elements of polycarbonte ID cards and passport data pages. In addition to pioneering new technologies for forgery-proof documents, we are focusing on their quick and easy implementation.”