New facial recognition technology aims to get travelers through customs faster at MSP Airport

New technology using biometric facial recognition to screen U.S. citizens returning from abroad has arrived at Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport with the goal of making it easier and faster to clear customs.

Called Enhanced Passenger Processing (EPP), travelers returning home on international flights stand before a tablet-sized screen fitted with a camera and biometric facial comparison technology to verify their identity, citizenship status, conduct law enforcement vetting and create a crossing record in U.S. Customs and Border Protection systems.

Non-citizens arriving in the U.S. cannot use EPP.

The system, which debuted at MSP this week, cross-references a traveler’s face with a photo on file, such as that on a passport or Global Entry Card. The process takes just a few seconds, said Steve Bansbach, a spokesman for Customs and Border Protection (CBP).

EPP eliminates some of the administrative work, allowing officers to focus on the traveler in front of them, Bansbach said.

EPP went live at Chicago’s O’Hare Airport in May, and early results show the time to process passengers has dropped from 60 seconds to 10.

Before EPP, a traveler would hand an officer their passport or other government-issued ID. The officer would flip to the page with the traveler’s photo, look at it and verify the traveler’s identity, and ask questions about their travel.

With EPP, “if you have nothing to declare, an officer will ask a few questions and you are on your way,” Bansbach said.

That can be a significant time saver, especially when lines are long. At O’Hare, EPP has cut time waiting to see an officer by 74% and led to a 20% to 45% decrease in passengers missing a connecting flight, Bansbach said.

“We expect the same results at MSP,” he said.

CBP officers will be on hand to help travelers to use the touchless technology. Travelers hesitant to use EPP can still go to a desk and undergo the traditional customs process with a live officer.

Bansbach said EPP is safe and secure, and scans disappear from the system after a short time.

The technology comes as MSP is seeing a boom in international travel. Last year, the airport set a record for total international passengers — 3,569,721 — with just over half of those arriving passengers.

In May, Delta Air Lines began nonstop routes to Copenhagen and Rome. With those flights, travelers at MSP have access to 35 nonstop international destinations.

MSP becomes the 12th airport in the nation to use EPP; others include Los Angeles, Orlando, Charlotte, Denver, Seattle and Chicago, as part of CBP’s airport modernization efforts.