Security is a universal pain point for travellers but will new standards around smart self-service be the answer? Sally White investigates

If you want travellers to see your airport as a destination, then maybe you need to think about how you could use technology to improve security. Why? Because the security checkout is ‘a near universal pain point’, acknowledges the airlines’ trade body, the International Air Transport Association (IATA). 

Nearly 60% of those surveyed by IATA said that a bad security experience at a transfer airport would affect their future travel choices. That’s not good news if you want your airport to become the one travellers choose over others in your region.

Given the combination of rising border security fears and the new IATA 20-year passenger growth forecast that numbers will more than double to 7.3 bn by 2034, the situation seems only likely to worsen. Today’s model is not sustainable for the long term.

Right now 39 countries require an airline to send advance passenger information (API) data before the flight’s arrival and 32 more plan to introduce similar requirements in the near future, according to a report titled ‘Smart Borders’ from international consultants Deloitte. IATA is saying that the cost of non-standard passenger data programmes, in terms of IT development, data extraction and transmission, has risen to unacceptable levels.

As a result, IATA is working to harmonise government requirements for API-type data with global standards and guidelines in a project called Smart Security. IATA Director and CEO Tony Tyler told the World Passenger Symposium in San Diego, California earlier this month that trials are being carried out at London’s Heathrow, Amsterdam’s Schiphol and Hamad International Airport in Doha. It is seeking additional trial partners.

“Smart Security aims to improve security and remove the hassle, so that passengers proceed through security checkpoints with a minimum of queuing and disrobing,” Tyler says. The trials will check the impact on new procedures and equipment on operational efficiency, the passenger experience and security effectiveness.

Putting the passenger in control

IATA’s vision is for ‘an uninterrupted journey from curb to aircraft door,’ which can be achieved through evolution of the checkpoint through advancing technology, risk assessment and operational improvements. 

Success in this project is vital for IATA’s ‘Fast Travel’ initiative. This initiative responds to passenger demands through six timesaving, self-service options including self-check-in and/or automatic check-in, self-bag tagging and self-boarding and automatic rebooking. Passengers, says Tony Tyler,  “want to be in control of their journey” and they expect to be connected throughout it.

Apart from demands for security check improvements, IATA’s 2014 Global Passenger Survey has some interesting findings:

• Nearly 40% of passengers preferred to check in via the Internet or their mobiles
• 38% preferred automatic check-in.
• Just 15% preferred to receive their boarding passes from an agent at an airport check-in counter

This year IATA is seeking to increase the numbers of passengers who can access most of the ‘fast travel’ demands from 18.7% to 27%. “With the support of our airport and IT partners we can make it happen,” Tony Tyler told his audience at the World Travel Symposium. “By 2020 we want 80% of air travellers to be offered a complete self-service suite based on industry standards.”