With its biggest summer period for three years looming, Air New Zealand is turning to biometrics and contactless travel options to help it cope. Between December 15th and January 31st, the Auckland-based airline is expecting to welcome 2.8 million passengers compared to 1.1 million in the same period last year.Always on the lookout for ways to improve the customer experience, Air New Zealand (ANZ) successfully trialed boarding using biometric verification at Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) last week. The airline wants to take the friction out of travel by getting rid of passport sighting and boarding pass scanning. ANZ chief digital officer Nikhil Ravishankar said the technology would speed up boarding and make it a seamless experience for passengers and staff.

"We've heard from customers that they want the airport experience to be hassle-free, and technology is a key enabler of that. The feedback from the more than one thousand customers who have used this technology to board our flights has been really positive."

You need to enroll first

Passengers entering the United States can register with US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) using their biometric information. The captured biometric data is then used at automated airport kiosks to verify their identity when boarding. The sensitive information is secured by CBP and is not accessible to the airlines. ANZ said it will now use the system in San Francisco before moving on to its other US destinations.

In its 2022 Global Passenger Survey, the International Air Transport Association (IATA) found that 75% of passengers would prefer to use biometrics rather than passports or boarding passes for verification. For ANZ, using biometrics at boarding is only the beginning, and the airline is working with partners on using the identification technology throughout the complete airport process.

Back to pre-Covid numbers this summer

Regaining passenger confidence is something all airlines are working on, particularly as the peak holiday seasons approach. Nobody, least of all the passengers, wants to see the chaotic scenes of queues stretching out to car parks or bags piled high repeated. To get on the front foot, this week, ANZ chief operating officer Alex Marren reassured customers that the airline had everything under control for an extremely busy holiday period, with nearly three million passengers booked to travel. She said:

"Over recent weeks, we've seen a strong increase in bookings and over the summer, we'll be operating at pre-Covid levels. We know how important it is to get our customers to where they need to be safely, so we've strengthened our operations to ensure customers enjoy a seamless airport and inflight experience."

Staff shortages were an issue earlier in the year, but ANZ has hired more than 1,950 operational employees in the last ten months and plans to add another 700 by the end of February. It has added around 250 pilots, 1,200 cabin crew, 400 airport employees and 30 engineers. Marren said they would also add a pool of casual employees in airport customer service roles and, where possible, offer part-time employees a full-time role.

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Adding aircraft also helps with crowds

On the aircraft front, ANZ is adding an additional 50 seats per flight on two new domestic Airbus A321neos and is continuing to bring back Boeing 777-300s into service. It has also enlisted a wet lease aircraft and crew from Spanish charter airline Wamos Air to operate flights between Auckland and Perth, Australia.

With the rush set to start in a few weeks, the airline won't have to wait long to see if all its plans are enough to cope with pre-Covid volumes of traffic. It appears to have done everything it can, so time will tell.

Do you think Air New Zealand is setting the standard for post-Covid recovery best practices?

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  Air New Zealand

  IATA/ICAO Code:

  NZ/ANZ

  Airline Type:

  Full Service Carrier

  Hub(s):

  Auckland Airport, Christchurch Airport, Wellington Airport

  Year Founded:

  1965

  Alliance:

  Star Alliance

  CEO:

  Greg Foran

  Country:

  New Zealand

  Region:

  Oceania