Japan Airlines to cooperate in biometric check-in test at Narita

Japan Airlines will take part in an "e-check-in" experiment for simpler passenger check-in at Tokyo's Narita Airport, from mid January to March 2003 in cooperation with the New Tokyo International Airport Authority (NTIAA), NTT "Docomo" and Matsushita Electrical Industries.

The check-in test is one of the experiments in the "e-Airport plan" of Japan's Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transportation (MLIT).

It will include the use of biometric technology in the check-in process to identify passengers by facial recognition and by checking the iris of a passenger's eye by a harmless infrared beam.

JAL's contribution to the test will be a recently installed Self Check-in Machine (SCM) and the airline will ask for volunteers from the members of the JAL Mileage Bank, the company's frequent flyer programme and the JAL Global Club.