Airside and Tascent Partner to Bring Integrated COVID Solution to Travel Industry


Most digital transactions with sensitive personal information needed for identity proofing end up in a database, making them available for marketing purposes,” said Jessica Patel, Chief Revenue Officer at Airside. “We don’t think data privacy should be sacrificed for the sake of convenience.”

Digital identity innovator Airside has teamed up with intuitive biometrics leader Tascent Inc. to deliver an integrated, biometric recovery solution for the travel industry, heavily-impacted by COVID-19. Developed to help airlines and airports deliver their services in a safe and timely fashion, the Airside-Tascent solution offers secure, seamless, and touchless biometric technology for travelers to use across many points along their journey. The partnership is a result of the synergy between the two U.S.-based technology pioneers that combines years of technical expertise and top-performing products, based on providing superlative user experiences and built in accordance with data privacy standards and regulations.

Airlines and airports have quickly adapted to COVID-19, innovating at record speed to meet public health guidance. In parallel, travelers are proving their ability to manage a multitude of important safety measures at every step of the journey, from trip planning to returning home. However, the emerging safety and security processes have been met with new challenges, such as long queues, shared touchpoints, and unqualified and ineffective temperature check products.

“What’s more, is that most of these digital transactions involving sensitive personal information needed for identity proofing end up in some sort of database, making them available for marketing purposes and vulnerable to theft and fraud,” said Jessica Patel, Chief Revenue Officer at Airside. “We don’t think data privacy should be sacrificed for the sake of convenience.”

Airside and Tascent have integrated COVID-based solutions into their industry-leading technologies and, today, announce their interoperability and applied use in air travel.

“We’ve seen incredible changes in the aviation industry,” said Alastair Partington, CEO of Tascent, Inc. “We’re focused on helping to solve the big-picture issues across the system, rather than just implementing a stand-alone tool. By innovating and combining best-of-breed capabilities, we addressed specific challenges faced by aviation stakeholders today – improving safety for everyone on the ground and on board, keeping operations agile, and boosting traveler confidence and overall satisfaction.” Both companies consider efficiency, accuracy, and self-service as key requirements for today’s air travel experience.

The Airside-Tascent end-to-end solution provides travelers with personalized service, empowering them to control how their personal information and biometrics are used as part of their air travel experience.

The process starts with an easy mobile enrollment using the Airside Digital Identity App. This consent-driven digital identity management app connects travelers and businesses by enabling biometric identity verification and the sharing of personal information, such as driver’s licenses, passports, and lab test results. Travelers can conveniently add and verify their personal information in one single install, then decide when to securely share this information with their airline or other relying party.

On the day of travel, the person can breeze through the airport using Tascent’s InSight Face cooperative facial recognition system. Optimized for the aviation environment and integrated with airlines’ self-service check-in kiosks and bag drop units and airports’ security checkpoints, the InSight Face captures high-quality biometric images, enabling best-in-class facial matching via Tascent’s Enterprise Suite against the personal information already provided via the Airside App. The InSight Face device is available with additional capabilities, including External Body Temperature checking (InSight Face EBT), which meets current FDA Guidelines for Telethermographic Systems used for COVID-19 EBT measurements.

The combination of the Airside and Tascent technologies creates an important recovery solution that enables large-scale, seamless, and, most importantly, safe operations while sharing the sensitive information needed for air travel today.

Using the Airside-Tascent solution, the travelers maintain control of their personal information while moving swiftly along their journey in a streamlined, intuitive way. The Airside-Tascent integrated recovery solution provides new options for airlines, airports, and travelers, and is available for immediate application.

About Tascent

Tascent harnesses the power of biometrics to enable the frictionless flow of people and transactions in a connected world. We focus on creating intuitive hardware, software, and services, providing comprehensive capabilities for tailored identity solutions. Through partnerships, we deliver the strength of trusted identity to positively impact travel, financial services, ticketing and events, workplace access, government services, and humanitarian efforts.

While many biometric companies offer products that are complex and counterintuitive, Tascent makes it easy for our partners to integrate and deploy robust, intuitive approachable, and multimodal biometric identity systems. Today, our biometric solutions serve tens of millions of people each year in some of the most challenging environments. We strive to innovate and create products that address unmet needs for critical-yet-routine identity processes, making lives simpler and easier.

Based in Silicon Valley, CA, Tascent supports customers and partners globally through our partner network. https://tascent.com

About Airside

Airside builds secure and convenient digital identity technology in a manner that protects personal information and meets privacy regulations around the world. With Airside’s products and services, people are empowered to control their personal information with transparent consent protocols, and businesses can protect against fraud, reduce the burden of complying with privacy regulations and ensure a duty-of-care by appropriately managing sensitive information. Airside’s first product, Mobile Passport, has been downloaded by more than 9 million people and is counted on by more than 30 U.S. airports and cruise ports to reduce shared touchpoints, long lines, and crowding. Airside is headquartered in Arlington, Virginia. Learn more at: https://www.airsidemobile.com or follow us on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn.

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