Unlocking the Power of Digital Identity

Mobility and air travel sit at the very core of our socioeconomic fabric. Travel & Tourism contribute 10.3% of Global GDP, are responsible for generating one in four of the world’s new jobs, and for nine successive years have outpaced the growth of the global economy. 

With the world facing an unprecedented global health, social and economic emergency as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, aviation plays an important role in re-establishing trust in global travel. 

With a rebound in international travel expected in the second half of 2021, increasing safety, efficiency, accessibility and interconnectivity is going to be paramount to staying competitive in our ever-increasing digital world. 

State-of-the-art advanced technologies, such as autonomous devices and digital airport passenger processing systems present opportunities to transform legacy systems currently inadequate for future growth. 

Explore how digital transformation is the cornerstone of our activity at Vision-Box, and discover how we’ve delivered touchless identification systems and contactless traveller experiences in our long-term engagement with AirAsia. 

Innovation in the Air Travel Industry Today

The aviation industry is in a unique position to support innovation, but it must go beyond mobility. Today’s travellers expect smooth, straightforward and secure journeys through the airport and to their final destinations.

A successful approach must focus on biometric-enabled digital identity management platforms. These hold the key to enhancing operational efficiency and improving user experience thus delivering a much-needed positive change in an ever-evolving landscape. 

Working with AirAsia to Revolutionise their Airport Passenger Processing System

With the expected rebound of domestic flights across Asia and other major economies in the world, airlines have to step back to consider how technology and innovation will benefit the sector in the long term.

Despite the global pandemic’s impact, between January and December 2020, AirAsia still carried over 13 million passengers. In their annual Financial Operating Statistics report, the company stated it successfully recovered close to 60% of pre-COVID domestic capacity by the end of the year.

As part of its continued company growth, AirAsia has bold ambitions to become both a digital travel and lifestyle platform. To continue their innovative trend, AirAsia engaged Vision-Box to help them realise the next step in providing seamless and touchless identification and a contactless clearance experience for travellers.

Vision-Box and AirAsia share the vision of creating a world where people choose to use facial recognition, biometric technologies and digital identity data to simplify experiences. This led Vision-Box to design a digital identity management strategy across Capital A to improve experiences with a single enrolment at key customer process points. 

Key Challenges Facing AirAsia

From the project’s inception, it was clear that the biggest challenge in creating a seamless journey experience was the need for a single system capable of sharing data among multiple key stakeholders. 

High guest volumes and manual processing made facial recognition and data processing operationally demanding for AirAsia. While AirAsia already had legacy systems that facilitated a level of facial recognition for boarding passengers, the hardware and infrastructure made organisational scaling more challenging and didn’t contribute to global eco-standards or governmental regulations. This is where Vision-Box lent our expert support. 

Sustainable and Scalable Digital Transformation in the Travel Industry

The main objective was to deploy pioneering solutions that increased operational flexibility while distributing a tailor-made digital identity management platform across AirAsia’s different business operations. 

Vision-Box’s approach equipped AirAsia with a Mobile SDK to capture high-quality facial recognition data, allowing them to quickly and accurately verify users’ documents through e-passport and border technology.  

Our privacy-by-design certification plays a fundamental role in the development of our solutions. It enhances anti-spoofing and fraud detection in AirAsia’s mobile application and digital ecosystem, giving the organisation a greater degree of security. 

As AirAsia's digital transformation journey unfolds, Vision-Box combines the following new services and solutions: 

• Delivery of FACES. A touchless identification and contactless clearance platform designed for AirAsia Super App check-in to enhance the guest experience at the airport,  improve customer brand loyalty, and be an integral part of AirAsia’s overall digital transformation. 

• Network-wide Digital Identity Management. A collaborative development to drive organisational data ecosystem expansion and technology enablers across Airasia Super App's travel and finance platforms. 

• Deployment of contactless traveller touch points across AirAsia’s 24 travel hubs, including:
  • Mobile Digital ID enrolment.
  • Biometric Facial Recognition devices at check-in (FACES).
  • Automated bag-drop self-service. 
  • Seamless Assistant: Security and Boarding for streamlined traveller identification and clearance. 

• Sustainability at the forefront. Digital innovation efforts are empowering AirAsia to rely less on physical hardware and minimise their carbon emissions with the support of our strategic partnership. 

Vision-Box is currently on track to deploy our solution in 150 airports across the globe within the next three to five years. Our agile digital identity management solution streamlines and simplifies AirAsia’s activities. 

The Benefits of a Holistic Digital Identity Management Platform:

• Privacy-by-Design. Using Vision-Box's certified Vision-Box's Seamless Journey Platform, our privacy-by-design certification significantly improves the personal data security standards that consumers demand. 

• Compliance. Vision-Box provides Automated Border Control Systems and electronic Identity Solutions using ICAO Compliant Standards. By integrating compliance, the individual receives the highest level of privacy protection as the system defaults to government regulations and commercial network requirements. 

• Security. Vision-Box is always improving our baseline approach, meaning there is continual development and enhancement in security, privacy-by-design and innovation to ensure the solution is consistently delivering competitive value. 

• End-to-end. Vision-Box worked with AirAsia at every step from mobile enrollment to pre-security as well as testing at passenger boarding. Our approach supports AirAsia across its entire network and technology ecosystem from capturing data to verifying traveller documentation. 

• Innovation as a Partnership. No matter the complexity of the challenge, we work as close, trusted partners to identify and design a dedicated, measured and tailored solution. Our team has the capabilities to assemble an innovative and scalable system to overcome challenges from legacy technologies.
•  

Turn the New Frontier of Travel into a Reality with Vision-Box

Touchless technologies in the travel sector are something Vision-Box has been championing for over fifteen years. 

Our commitment to harnessing the power of automation and biometrics represents a steadfast mission to improve people’s lives by delivering seamless and frictionless experiences.  

The pandemic has shown why contactless technologies are so important for the future of travel. Industry changes have emphasised the need to retrofit outdated hardware and implement cutting-edge software to streamline the flow of travellers across air, land and sea.