Last year, AirAsia introduced its revamped FACES, a facial recognition technology which lets you replace your traditional boarding pass with your face. This allows a seamless and contactless experience throughout the several airport touchpoints as you won’t need to fumble with your passport and boarding pass. AirAsia has just announced that it is taking its facial recognition experience a step further by integrating it with Malaysia Airports’ EZPaz technology at Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA2).
The enhanced contactless feature went live on Monday with flight AK5234 from Kuala Lumpur to Kuching. Passengers were able to pass through pre-security and boarding with their biometric identity. According to AirAsia, the facial recognition feature helps to reduce queuing time and it increases operational efficiencies, safety and security for the airline. At the moment, the enhanced FACES feature is not available on all flights as it is only offered for select domestic travel in the start up phase.
Passengers who have enrolled to AirAsia FACES via the mobile app can start using the feature immediately. If you haven’t already, you can do so via the AirAsia SuperApp. You’ll need to take a selfie video and scan your travel documents such as your IC or passport. Before using FACES, you’ll need to perform a one-time document verification check at the dedicated FACES counter at W15 and W16 at KLIA2.
Commenting on the announcement, AirAsia Malaysia CEO Riad Asmat said “As a digital and contactless procedure, which includes online check-in anywhere, anytime in the world with a click of a button, FACES is a definitive game-changer and a revolutionary enhancement to help restore confidence in air travel. From today, the new technology is available on selected flights from our main hub in klia2 as a start, and there are myriad of opportunities for us to expand FACES at other touchpoints such as self bag drop at the airport, payment features on our airasia Super App and many others across our airline and digital businesses.”
“Delivering the best value, choice and innovation has always been in our DNA and we are thrilled to join forces with Malaysia Airports to make the airport future-ready at a time where demand for air travel is rapidly returning to pre-pandemic levels. We look forward to deploying our contactless FACES technologies in every airport we operate to in the near future to make flying more convenient, efficient and seamless than ever before,” he added.
EZPaz is a facial recognition system by Malaysia Airports which has been deployed for domestic travellers flying via Malaysia Airlines at KLIA. First time users will have to enrol themselves at the kiosks located at Door 1 and 2 at Level 5, and once that’s done, travellers can proceed to use EZPaz at the security check area as well as at the boarding gates.
When AirAsia introduced FACES during the pandemic, there was a concern about the facility since face masks are still required for air travel. Effective 28th September 2022, the Malaysian health authorities announced that face masks are no longer required onboard commercial flights.
Besides KLIA and KLIA2, Singapore’s Changi T4 is also using facial recognition for a seamless experience. The airport uses digital and biometric technology to combine both immigration and security clearance in a single touchpoint, which not only saves time but also reduces the need of having a large space for immigration clearance.
Related reading
- Singapore’s Changi T4: All airports should be designed like this
- AirAsia to phase out check-ins counters for most passengers in Malaysia from 1st April, here’s why
- Face masks no longer required on AirAsia and MAS flights except for certain destinations
- AirAsia returns to Singapore’s Changi T4: Here’s why it’s important for the airline
