In conjunction with Toluca International Airport, a Mexican government effort aims to alleviate traffic congestion at Benito Juarez International Airport in Mexico City.

According to the Secretariat of National Defense, one of the attractions will be the control tower, which will have the shape of a macuahuitl, an obsidian-tipped sword used by the Aztecs to defend themselves against invaders, according to the Secretariat of National Defense (Sedena).

According to the master plan for the project, this airport will have the capacity to welcome up to 20 million people in the first stage, a figure that will triple in 40 years. 

The final stage will be evacuating the over 1,000 military troops and their families currently residing in Santa Lucia, whose residences will be rebuilt south of the base, where military operations will continue.

Some may dispute the dual use of this airport because civil activities would be halted in an emergency, but the truth is that this is a regular practice in Mexico. 

Ten of the country’s 77 airports are mixed-use, including Merida, La Paz, Tijuana, Oaxaca, and Cozumel.

We Can expect The Airport City to Open Next Year

Mexico’s Secretary of State for National Defense expects the Felipe Angeles Airport (State of Mexico) to open on March 21, 2022, after construction was delayed due to the epidemic. 

Five months after its launch, more than 30,700 workers, including 1,200 military troops, have accomplished 75 percent of the job.

However, just a portion of the amenities will be available in March, as the airport’s second stage is not scheduled to be completed for another 30 years. 

Similarly, the Ministry of Defense anticipates that the airfield will attract a total of 20 million passengers in its first year of operation, rising to 85 million after it reaches full capacity.

The former Santa Lucia Military Air Base is being transformed into the new Felipe Angeles Airport (also known as Santa Lucia Airport). 

In conjunction with Toluca International Airport, a Mexican government effort aims to alleviate traffic congestion at Benito Juarez International Airport in Mexico City.

We describe the regulatory hurdles and potential for biometric technology firms that help travelers have a more seamless experience.

A Seamless Travel Journey 

The concept of a seamless traveler journey had been making considerable development before the Covid-19 pandemic.

 It will enhance the traveler experience by offering a smooth but secure end-to-end trip while also reducing inefficiencies in the travel and tourism supply chain. 

Instead of producing documentation at many stages of their journey, such as when buying flights, hotels, checking-in, passing security and crossing borders, boarding the airline, etc., travelers would simply have to validate their identification and booking details once.

By its very nature, travel necessitates contact for the processing, from making reservations to check-in, security, customs, and immigration. 

According to a poll conducted in February 2020, more than 55 percent of travelers deemed the process of air travel to be even more stressful than work, including booking, traveling to the airport, and boarding. 

These processes have not been made any easier by the Covid-19 problem. However, the pandemic has demonstrated that facilitating a seamless traveler journey, rather than simply assuring a hassle-free journey for travelers, is a matter of need for the future.

Covid-19 has compelled the travel industry to employ technology such as biometrics, artificial intelligence, and digital identity management in order to provide contactless services such as self-check-in, drop-off, and automated identification verification.

Now, with the emerging of the pandemic, contactless technologies have emerged as a vital technology for early detection, patient screening, and public safety monitoring.

Challenges and Opportunities In Regulatory Matters

At least 15 European countries experimented with biometric technologies, including facial recognition in public settings as of May 2020.

The disputed General Data Protection Regulation, which establishes data protection rules, is the primary legislative act when it comes to the usage of biometric data.

Although processing biometric data is not legally prohibited, the Member States retain the authority to adopt, modify, or create more specific national legislation and ensure their enforcement. 

In other words, by artificially separating different types of biometric data, the General Data Protection Regulation does not provide explicit regulations but rather principles enabling the Member States to take a subjective and use-based approach.

You can see this as yet another situation in which technology advances faster than regulations, as legislators are still establishing the rules.

The Commission has initiated a debate on how to deal with biometric technologies within the White Paper on Artificial Intelligence because the General Data Protection Regulation framework does not provide enough clarity for data protection when it comes to these technologies.

The EU’s executive arm contemplated imposing a five-year ban on the use of facial recognition technologies in public settings earlier this year while it reviewed ways to prevent their misuse. Soon later, the Commission reversed course and stated its intention to submit legislation to regulate AI.

However, as previously stated, the dangers to the AI business could be significant if the Commission rules too quickly and makes mistakes. 

Member states may agree since thirteen countries have signed a Danish initiative warning against over-regulating artificial intelligence technology, arguing that overburdening strict legislation could stifle the European AI industry’s progress.

The Commission’s work schedule for 2021 no longer includes an endeavor to regulate AI. This might provide the sector some breathing room in Europe while also buying time to participate more deeply and impact the decision-making processes of EU institutions debating how to govern AI and, implicitly, biometric technologies.

However, the Commission believes that biometric technologies are high-risk applications and that they need a set of stricter laws and standards.

Companies may be required to bear the burden of proof in demonstrating compliance with EU safety standards and use sufficiently representative data sets and keep records of the programming, training methodologies, processes, and techniques utilized to build, test, and validate AI systems.

Members of the European Parliament warn that biometrics poses severe risks and interferences with the rights to what is privacy and data protection in the Digital Services Act Report and demand that the European Commission provide customers the opportunity to opt-out and alternatives to using biometric data.

Following intense political pressure, the EU’s executive arm acknowledged that a proper debate on how to deal with these technologies is required, 

Although there is still a long way to go before a coherent solution to ensuring biometric data privacy and data exchange to support a seamless traveler journey is developed, the debate at the EU level on artificial intelligence regulation is one that the travel technology industry should not overlook.

Novus is collaborating with airports to establish long-term strategies that address the root causes of today’s aviation difficulties, prepare for the future and assist them in realizing their goals.