http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/1784152.cms 

AI checking to go biometric
Saurabh Sinha
[ 21 Jul, 2006 0057hrs ISTTIMES NEWS NETWORK ]
 
 
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NEW DELHI: Each time domestic passengers board the "original low cost" Delhi-Mumbai segment of an Air India (AI) international flight, security and immigration officials here say a silent prayer that these passengers get off at the stopover and don't continue flying to Europe or US.

For unlike domestic passengers boarding Air India flights from Mumbai, people taking an AI flight from here to go to another Indian city, don't have their photographs printed on boarding cards.

"In Mumbai we often take photographs of domestic passengers and print them on boarding cards. This way we can check if the right person is getting down at Delhi and only genuine international passengers stay on board to continue flying to foreign destinations," said a source.

As Delhi lacks this system, airline sources admitted that there have been some instances in the past where domestic passengers switched their boarding card with an international flier and went abroad.

Now AI is all set to end this problem by switching over to a comprehensive biometric identification system for passengers while checking-in anywhere in India, including Delhi.

The airline will do comprehensive profiling of passengers by using scientific techniques like taking their fingerprints or scanning the iris. "In a few months we will have comprehensive details of passengers at the time they check-in.

This information can be sent to any other station. This system would rule out the scope of impersonation or any fraud. We would be the first airline in India to adopt this high-tech system," airline chairman and managing director V Thulasidas told TOI.

Security experts point out that screening passengers on the basis of names is perhaps the "most primitive and least technological" basis of identification. In fact, now some "sensitive" countries are relying more on biometric testing to prevent terrorists from entering their borders by using false travel papers.

With AI adopting the system in a few months, the large number of international airlines whose ground handling it does would like to avail of the ‘foolproof' safety, said Thulasidas.

AI handles the ground and counter services for as many as 23 airlines. These include Emirates, American, Continental, Singapore Airlines, Saudia and Austrian Airways, said an official.

Recently while upgrading its security, CISF had advised all airlines to ensure better safety measures at their end in places like flight catering service.

This security force is also banking more on passenger profiling in which "seemingly suspicious" fliers are subjected to intense checking.

"Better profiling and relying on scientific techniques like biometric identification is going to be better for passengers also as they won't have to face security hurdles.

Otherwise, subjecting everyone to the same high level of checks is bound to cause delays at small terminals like Delhi's IB terminal," said an airline official.