IDEMIA Selected by Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd. to Securely Expedite Passenger Debarkation Through Biometric Verification

IDEMIA in cooperation with Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd. (“Royal Caribbean”) and U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP), announce the expansion of Royal Caribbean’s debarkation process using IDEMIA’s MFace™ high speed 3D face capture technology. With the successful completion of trials at Cape Liberty, New Jersey, and the Port of Miami, the program is now moving into commercial production at these ports.

IDEMIA’s facial recognition technology has enabled the Royal Caribbean passenger debarkation process to be both more secure and efficient. The use of IDEMIA’s MFACE technology has played a key role in enhancing the passenger experience by completing the process significantly faster than the manual verification method previously used.

The MFace technology by IDEMIA streamlines the process by comparing the facial identities of individuals disembarking with the identities of ticketed passengers who boarded the ship at the start of a cruise, matching against images in the U.S. Customs and Border Protection’s (CBP) Traveler Verification Service (TVS). No images are stored by Royal Caribbean, CBP or IDEMIA after the trip is completed to ensure that passenger privacy is maintained.

IDEMIA and Royal Caribbean anticipate additional deployments in other Florida ports later in 2019 that each process several million passengers annually.

"Innovative solutions that improve our guests’ total experience – including the final step of clearing Customs in a fast, secure, frictionless process – is Royal Caribbean’s way of the future. We received very positive guest feedback on the enhanced facilitated Customs process powered by facial biometric technology systems as it allows our passengers to seamlessly pass through the CBP inspection process. We look forward to having this solution available in more ports nationwide and continue to lead the change for the industry," said Captain Thomas Hinderhofer, Royal Caribbean’s Director of Cape Liberty Cruise Port and Miami Cruise Terminal A.