Malaysia Airlines (MAS) recently began testing the new Single-Token system at the Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA). The new system is part of the Airports 4.0 initiative by Malaysia Airports and also involves SITA which is the main IT provider for majority of airports throughout the world.
The system is a basically a new facial recognition feature designed to minimise passenger requirement to produce their travel documents at the designated airport checkpoints. On trial for the next three months, it is only available on two MAS airlines: MH070, which goes to Narita International Airport (NRT), and MH052 that goes Kansai International Airport (KIX).
In order to sign up for the program, travellers heading to either of these cities simply need to head over to counters H5 to H8 at KLIA. Of course, if you’re able to handle the check-in without any human interactions, there also self-service kiosk at the airport set up at the airport.
Once signed in, you’ll simply need to pass through the designated checkpoints and automated gates. From there, the facial recognition equipment at these gates should recognise your face, thus allowing you to pass through into the waiting area, as well as shaving off several minutes that would usually be wasted via manual verification.
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To be fair, MAS isn’t the first local carrier to adopt facial recognition technology in order to speed up passenger check-in and clearance. Back in 2018, AirAsia launched its Fast Airport Clearance Experience System, or F.A.C.E.S., at Senai International Airport in Johor Bahru.
AirAsia passengers travelling from the state need simply scan their faces with a camera that registers between 100 and 180 points. Matching it with the corresponding Mykad or passport. All in all, the process take approximately 30 seconds, after which, registered users will no longer require a boarding pass for all future flights going out of Senai.
(Source: Malaysia Airlines via SoyaCincau // Malaysia Airports.)
