Alaska Airlines is exploring replacing travel documents, driver's licenses, and credit cards—currently required for air travel—with passenger fingerprints. If successful, Alaska Airlines would become the first U.S. airline to apply biometrics to check-in and in-flight shopping, stimulating widespread adoption across the industry.
 
  Fingerprint scanning will save passengers time during baggage checks, security screenings, and lounge visits, most likely appealing to travelers on long-haul flights with short layovers.
 
  Travel analyst Henry Harteveldt stated that with hundreds of thousands of passengers moving through airports daily, time savings will translate to a “faster experience.”
 
  “The point of air travel is to be fast, but airports are one of the biggest time-wasters for travelers,” Harteveldt said.
 
  This move is Alaska Airlines’ latest attempt to differentiate itself from competitors through technology. Alaska Airlines, the sixth-largest airline in the United States, pioneered online booking and satellite navigation technology for aircraft landings in the 1990s. In 2001, it introduced wireless check-in technology, and last year became the first airline to accept Google Wallet, allowing passengers to test package tags from home.
 
  “The Most Convenient Airline”
 
  “We’ve always strived to make Alaska Airlines the most convenient airline,” said Sandy Stelling, Executive Director of Customer Research and Development at the company. “We try our best to reduce passenger wait times; I don’t think it’s necessary to make them wait that long.”
 
  Biometric identification technology, which uses physical characteristics as a basis for identification, is gaining increasing popularity in governments and businesses. Apple’s newly launched payment system this month allows iPhone 6 users to shop by swiping their fingers across the screen, and an Indian domestic biometric system promises rapid application to banking services serving 500 million residents.
 
  Alaska Airlines is still in the early stages of development of this system, which aviation consultant Robert Mann calls “e-thumb.” The company began testing it on August 21 at its Seattle transit center for frequent flyers waiting to enter the passenger lounge. Travelers responded very positively to the quick access to the lobby, so Alaska Airlines installed fingerprint scanners in four boardrooms within weeks.
 
  What's next?
 
  “We’re already discussing how to extend this technology to other services. What will we do next, apply it to gates? Package checks?” Stelling said. “Obviously, we’ve built many partnerships that enable these features. Customer feedback has been very positive, and we won’t stop there.”
 
  Gaining acceptance outside of Alaska Airlines’ passenger lounges will be much more complex. Alaska Airlines must convince the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) and airport authorities that its equipment is foolproof and will protect passenger privacy.
 
  The TSA website states that the technology must go through a federal government approval process, including extensive testing in enclosed airport environments, an assessment of privacy risks, publication of recommendations in the Federal Register, and comments.
 
  The TSA’s Perspective
 
  “The TSA is always working to introduce new technologies and procedures to enhance security and efficiency,” said spokesperson Ross Feinstein. He declined to comment on whether the agency was considering widespread adoption of biometrics to replace government identification.
 
  Jennifer Lynch, a senior attorney at the San Francisco-based privacy firm Electronic Frontier Foundation, stated that with approximately 300,000 non-U.S. residents having their fingerprints collected daily at border crossings, widespread private sector adoption of this technology increases the risk of hackers stealing biometric and personally identifiable information.
 
  “This is not only a privacy risk, but also a security risk,” Lynch said.
 
  In 2008, London Heathrow Airport suspended a domestic fingerprinting program citing privacy concerns. The program aimed to allow international travelers at the new Terminal 5 to bypass immigration checks.
 
  Securing Data
 
  “The challenges lie in reliability and cost, and ensuring passenger data security,” Harteveldt said.
 
  Jerry Tolzman, Alaska Airlines’ Process Optimization Manager, stated that the company does not retain the fingerprint information of travelers participating in the fingerprinting program. An algorithm converts each passenger's unique fingerprint data into encrypted code, making it impossible to reconstruct the original image.
 
  Mann, head of R.W. Mann & Co. and an aviation consultant at Port Washington, D.C., said other airlines may not adopt the technology so quickly due to its high cost. Other airlines would also need to hire people to identify travelers unwilling to share biometric data.
 
  There's also the issue of feeling "disgusted" about fingerprinting on a screen that's been pressed countless times. "Biometric technology sounds great in theory, but it's easy to smudge the screen," Mann said.
 
  Continuous Experimentation
 
  Alaska Airlines places hand sanitizer next to fingerprint scanners in the waiting area of Seattle Airport, and staff ensure passengers' hands are clean.
 
  The company's innovation team is also working on another challenge: keeping all other information on the regular boarding pass.
 
  "Passengers won't need to show their fingerprints, saying, 'Look, I'm in 16D,' or 'My flight is taking off in 20 minutes,'" Stelling said in Alaska Airlines' boardroom in Seattle.
 
  Jason Soza, 33, from Juneau, Alaska, entered the waiting area last month using a fingerprint scanner. He said he was impressed by the technology and amazed by the time it saves.
 
  "I might forget my card or have to rummage through my bag for ages," he said, "but my thumb will always be with me."