Beijing Capital International Airport (BCIA) has completely automated the entire travel passenger journey from check-in and bag drop through to immigration, security and boarding, thanks to its deployment of SITA Smart Path technology.
Passengers only need to enroll once during check-in at BCIA and they are then able to glide through the airport using only their face as their boarding pass, eliminating the need for physical touchpoints and minimising the risk of Covid-19 infection for passengers, said SITA.
The SITA Smart Path solution is largest rollout of its kind at BCIA, and includes the implementation of over 600 biometric checkpoints through the airport including 250 lanes of automatic gates, 80 kiosks, and 30 self-bag drop stations which will process passengers from international flights.
SITA says that the deployment of Smart Path solution has significantly speed up passenger processing at BCIA, processing over 400 passengers boarding an Airbus A380 in less than 20 minutes.
Improved processing efficiency means shorter queuing time and more social distancing for all passengers, which is an added benefit during the Covid-19 era as the automated process removes the need to touch any airport equipment, reducing the risk of infection.
Sumesh Patel, SITA’s president of Asia Pacific said: “Automation is more important than ever in this Covid-19 environment to better enable social distancing and passenger flow without compromising processing times. The BCIA implementation is our most comprehensive deployment of next-generation technology and signposts growing interest from the market to automate and optimise airport operations through smart technology.
“With Duty-Free shopping now also optimised by SITA Smart Path we’re beginning to uncover the full potential of biometrics to boost passenger safety, convenience and confidence, in turn helping the air transport industry to recover and evolve.”
BCIA is the largest airport in China, with passenger volume exceeding 100 million between 2018 and 2020. It is positioned as the international hub airport in the overall design of the Jing-Jin-Ji airports group. To date, it serves 31 domestic airlines and 62 foreign airlines, with 133 international routes, and 161 domestic routes.