21 July 2020: The COVID-19 pandemic has brought forward the need of touchless technology, digital sensors and robotic innovations to detect health problems. Numerous airports across the globe have initiated social distancing norms, zero-touch check-ins and mobile access for boarding. Realising this, SITA and NEC Corporation have entered into a global partnership for developing solution to enable a secure walk through travel experience at Airports.
Masakazu Yamashina, Executive Vice President, NEC said, “NEC is pleased to collaborate with SITA to provide ‘NEC I: Delight,’ which utilizes NEC’s cutting-edge digital identity solutions that capitalize on biometrics technologies to deliver a unified customer experience across a wide range of services.”
Raffie Beroukhim, Chief Experience Officer, NEC Corporation of America, and head of NEC Global Aviation Centre of Excellence said, “We look forward to this partnership with SITA and the opportunity to develop and implement the most advanced platforms at airports throughout the world, thereby contributing to the digitization of the airline industry and making travel safer and more enjoyable.”
Through this partnership NEC’s I: Delight identity management platform will be merged with SITA Smart Path and SITA Flex thereby making mobile enabled and touchless airport processes a reality. This will allow passengers to use their digital identity on their mobile phone whenever they travel at each step in the journey. Passengers will use their biometric identity to check-in, make payments, drop their bag, as well as pass through security, immigration and boarding by simply scanning their face at each step. Key touchpoints will automatically recognize you as a passenger, making steps such as bag drop and boarding effortless.
Barbara Dalibard, CEO of SITA said, “In NEC we have another strong partner where together we are able to deliver to our airline and airport customers a more seamless, automated journey through the airport. We know that passengers value the benefit of a truly self-service experience. Leveraging SITA’s common-use footprint in more than 460 airports globally and NEC’s award-winning identity management technology, we are well placed to help our customers deliver a truly unique and efficient experience in the airport, particularly during these challenging times where there is increased focus on the health and safety of passengers.”
On one hand, NEC’s I: Delight platform will allows passengers who have opted to use the service to be identified quickly and with a high-degree of accuracy, even when passengers are on the move with cutting-edge identification technologies and AI solutions including the most accurate face recognition algorithm while SITA Smart Path and SITA Flex solutions will integrate mobile and NEC’s biometric technologies with existing common-use infrastructure and airline applications while delivering a smoother airport journey. This ground-breaking solution along with both companies global presence in the market and the combination of technology for Common Use Platforms and Artificial Intelligence (AI) solutions will go a long way to comply with the new hygiene requirements following the global COVID-19 pandemic, in line with recommendations from Airports Council International and IATA.
