Scan your face for boarding at Daxing airport
A China Eastern staff member at a VIP lounge at Daxing airport serves a passenger with a pair of augmented reality glasses.
China Eastern Airlines is introducing new intelligent boarding services based on 5G technology at Beijing's new mega airport.
The Shanghai-based carrier, along with Huawei and China Unicom, has installed a facial recognition system based on 5G network technology that allows passengers to complete boarding procedures by having their faces scanned.
The carrier has also launched the world’s first electronic luggage tag, which allows travelers to check in and track their bags via their mobile phones.
Such smart services will be trialed when the Daxing airport opens by the end of the month, and then promoted at other airports in Shanghai and Beijing as well as nationwide, China Eastern said on Thursday.
With the facial recognition system, passengers can finish ticket purchases, check-in, luggage check, security check and boarding. Crew members will confirm the identity of passengers manually to ensure safety.
Passengers can complete the facial recognition registration at self-service and high-end check-in counters at the Daxing airport or through the airline’s app after the end of October.
VIP lounge staff at the airport will wear augmented reality glasses to check the identity and flight information of each passenger by scanning their faces. They will remind passengers to board their flights on time.
Passengers can also check flight information, boarding gates, weather at their destination as well as how long it will take to walk to their gate by scanning their faces at new devices around the airport.
Passengers and airline crew can finish boarding procedures with facial recognition systems at the Daxing airport.
The airline's smart luggage tag, said to be the first of its kind in the world, has a screen to show passenger and flight information after coming into contact with a passenger's smartphone. A chip embedded in the tag also lets passengers follow their luggage on their phone.
The second round of applications for free tags will open between Friday and October 7 through the latest version of China Eastern’s mobile app.
The carrier will evaluate the flight and luggage check-in records of applicants as it issues the free tags, the airline said on Tuesday. Frequent travelers between Shanghai and Beijing will have priority.
Daxing airport is expected to open by the end of September. It aims to meet the country's soaring air-service demand and relieve pressure on the current capital airport.
The new airport near the junction of Beijing's Daxing District and Langfang in north Hebei Province is expected to handle 45 million passengers annually by 2021 and 72 million by 2025, making it one of the busiest airports in the world.
China Eastern and China Southern airlines will relocate 10 percent of their flights to Daxing airport. China United Airlines, Capital Airlines, Hebei Airlines and Xiamen Airlines will also be among the first batch of carriers to relocate to the new facility.
Electronic luggage tags from China Eastern Airlines have screens which display passenger and flight information.
