Inadmissible Passenger Fine Prevention Made Easy: Checkport Automates Travel Document Verification by Employing Regula’s Solution

Сheckport Switzerland is a subsidiary of Swissport International. It is a leading provider of travel document validation and monitoring solutions. Operating its own stations in Zurich and Geneva, the organization provides comprehensive aviation services with different qualifications in ground, passenger, and cargo handling.

Checkport’s parent company, Swissport International, provides airport ground services for some 282 million passengers annually and handles approximately 4.8 million tons of air cargo at 122 warehouses worldwide. With a workforce of approximately 66,000, Swissport’s ground and air cargo services are active at 300 airports in 50 countries on six continents.

Challenge

In its daily passenger handling operations, Checkport Switzerland must ensure that no inadmissible passenger (INAD) boards a flight.

INAD is a term used for passengers who are not allowed to enter the country that they are going to travel to. The entry restriction may be imposed for two reasons:

• Bona Fide, which implies unintentional issues like expired documents;
• Mala Fide, which stands for deliberate attempts involving identity fraud or other illegal activities.

If an INAD passenger is denied entry at their destination, it is the airline that must bear the cost of that passenger’s repatriation. Plus, airlines are heavily fined for these INAD incidents.

According to the survey conducted by Regula in 2023, among all the financial costs associated with identity fraud, the Aviation industry experiences the burden of penalties and fines in nearly every third case (29% of respondents).

Solution

To address the INAD risks, Checkport Switzerland developed a digital solution, Checkport MatchBox, an application that performs extensive document checks during online check-in. With the help of MatchBox, both passengers and Checkport Switzerland staff ensure that travelers have all the necessary documents, such as passports, visas, permits, etc., and that they are valid and genuine.

If some mandatory travel documents are missing, expired, or raise questions regarding their authenticity, online flight check-in is denied.

At the core of the Checkport MatchBox application lies Regula Document Reader SDK, a powerful software solution that enables thorough and accurate document verification.

Regula Document Reader SDK's advanced technologies automate the whole process of document verification. All a passenger needs to do during online check-in is to scan their ID with a smartphone camera. This is enough for Regula’s solution to:

• recognize the document type;
• read the data from all the zones, including MRZ, barcode, and RFID chip;
• verify the authenticity of the document and its data;
• perform a liveness check to ensure the company is dealing with a real physical document, not a digital screen, photo, or other copy that may easily be some kind of forgery.

To help identify INAD passengers, Regula Document Reader SDK pays special attention to checking issuance and expiration dates to ensure the document is valid for travel.

Relying on the most comprehensive identity document template database, which contains over 14,000 templates from 251 countries and territories, Regula’s solution allows Checkport to quickly and precisely verify all kinds of travel documents they may encounter.

Result

Since its launch, Checkport’s Matchbox app has verified nearly 1.5 million travel documents. 86% of these IDs were verified in a fully automated mode, with zero manual checks. Plus, it takes approximately three seconds to provide an accurate verdict upon document verification.

The solution proved its unrivaled efficiency in preventing 100% of fines imposed for Bona Fide INAD violations. As a result, it has led to a significant reduction in costs related to penalties and staff training.