Malaysia Airlines has partnered with IT firm SITA to pilot facial recognition technology at Kuala Lumpur International Airport in Malaysia.

Known as the Single Token Journey concept, the technology provides single-identification verification for passengers at all airport touchpoints such as check-in, security and customs.

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This is a part of the site’s Airports 4.0 initiative to transform Kuala Lumpur Airport into a smart airport using big data analytics (BDA).

The technology will be piloted for three months and will be available for passengers boarding two daily Malaysia Airlines flights to Narita International Airport in Tokyo and Kansai International Airport in Osaka, Japan.

With the introduction of this technology, the need to check the identity of passengers at multiple checkpoints will be eliminated as all passenger information will be made available to the airport’s different authorities.

Malaysia Airports acting group CEO Dato’ Mohd Shukrie Mohd Salleh said: “Our main focus in moving forward is to strengthen Malaysia’s position as an aviation hub. We will ensure that services at our airports are at par with other mega hubs around the world.

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“Harnessing technology for this purpose is one way we can simplify airport processes for our guests. This initiative is especially timely in view of Visit Malaysia 2020. We expect to have a successful pilot so that we can implement this in totality at KUL.”

Earlier this month, Malaysia Airports opened the newly refurbished immigration arrivals hall at Kuala Lumpur International Airport 2 (klia2).

In February last year, the company allocated MYR300m ($73.72m) to upgrade the baggage handling system (BHS) at the main terminal of Kuala Lumpur International Airport.

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