Using a Biometric System to Check-in and Check-out Luggage at Airports

The airline industry is losing millions of dollars each year due to lost or stolen passenger luggage. The current system used for both checking-in and checking-out passengers' luggage has not proven to be effective in curbing luggage loss. On the other hand numerous businesses, including airlines, have turned into biometrics for effective access control and user authentication. It is on the basis of this undisputed success of biometric systems that this research study proposes the extended use of a fingerprint biometric system for passenger luggage check-in and check-out at the airports. The use of biometrics at various international airports in other business areas has yielded positive results. Therefore, the usage of a biometric system for luggage check-in and check-out would be one way of nipping luggage theft in the bud. There are various returns on investing in the proposed biometric system for passenger luggage control at the airports. These returns include, curbing luggage theft resulting in savings of millions of dollars on luggage loss, and improving passenger satisfaction as well as passenger service. The usage of the proposed biometric system at the airports which have not started using biometrics has some limitations. These limitations include the perceived private invasion and user acceptance limitations.