NEC Corporation has announced the operator of Narita International Airport (NRT), Narita International Airport Corporation (NAA), and the operator of Tokyo International Airport (Haneda Airport, HND), Tokyo International Air Terminal Corporation (TIAT), will commence trial for “Face Express,” a new boarding procedure for international departure flights using facial recognition technology, in April 2021, utilizing a facial recognition system that belongs to NEC’s portfolio of advanced biometric authentication technologies, “Bio-IDiom”.

 

Face Express will allow passengers to access and proceed through procedures at the airport (check-in, baggage drop, security checkpoint entrance, boarding gate, etc.) without showing their passport and boarding pass by registering their facial image. This will achieve seamless procedures and, because it is contactless, it will reduce the infection risks posed by person-to-person contact.

 

The two airports will commence trial operation as below and will launch the service in July.