One of the lessons from the pandemic was that most parts of aviation had to do more with fewer resources, be it trained people, budgets, supply chains or aircraft. The industry was caught unawares when travel restrictions were abruptly removed, and airports were the first to feel the bottlenecks, although many had prudently turned to technology for their solution. As travelers returned en masse, the push was for more touchless and seamless travel, with passengers taking greater control of their airport experience. That trend is not going away any time soon, and this is where technology According to the (IATA), around 4 billion passengers traveled by air in 2019, and the association forecasts that this number will surge to more than 8 billion by 2040. Airports globally are adding more and bigger terminals, runways, car parks, and other infrastructure to cope with this, and SITA said 425 major construction projects worth around $450 billion are underway at existing airports. Efficiently handling double the number of passengers in just 16 years will require much more innovative solutions than building bigger buildings. Multiple examples already exist of how airport technology, such as online check-in and biometric screening, can move people through the process much more effectively than manual systems. has produced a White Paper, Face the Future, highlighting how the surge in air traveler numbers places extraordinary pressure on existing and new airports, national borders and airline resources. It adds that existing paper-based and manual travel infrastructure and legacy processes simply won't be able to cope, and the solution lies in harnessing the power of facial and fingerprint biometrics. A case in point is , the first airport in Europe to offer biometric touchpoints to all airline passengers, enabling streamlined, frictionless passage throughout the airport. The airport has adopted SITA's Smart Path biometric solution, where the passenger's face becomes their boarding pass. Travelers can securely register in advance on their mobile device or directly at the check-in kiosk using a biometric-enabled passport and can then pass through facial recognition-equipped checkpoints without showing any physical documents. SITA Vice President of Airports Stefan Schaffner explained: "SITA Smart Path biometrically enables every step of the passenger journey, from mobile enrollment to aircraft boarding and every point in between and beyond. With facial recognition across as many airport touch points as you need, it lets passengers manage their identity across the whole journey in a unique and touchless way. The final result is a radically improved travel experience." The white paper highlights successful case studies, including the Star Alliance Biometric initiative and the Indian government's DigiYatra program, both of which use the end-to-end biometric Smart Path. In addition to enhancing passenger experience, SITA believes biometric solutions will solve other industry challenges, such as space constraints, specialist staff shortages, and evolving passenger wants and needs. Discover more here. SITA is a member of IATA's OneID initiative and ICAO's ( ) Digital Travel Credentials (DTC) solution and is helping to define rigorous standards for passenger management in biometrics. Digital Travel Credentials are a verifiable digital identity shared before arrival (with the passenger's consent) for seamless border crossing. DTCs are used to create Aruba's Happy One Pass, which lets passengers arriving at the Caribbean island nation disembark at international arrivals and cross the border without stopping or even showing a travel document. This is the future that SITA envisions, and with global demand for travel rising, it reinforces that biometrics are at the forefront of this transformation.