Fingerprinting technologies may no longer be the purview of the police with airlines set to utilise the technologies in new and varied ways.

French airline, Air France plans to introduce biometric boarding passes that allow passengers to zip through airport checks using a scan of their fingerprint.

Passengers, who volunteer for the pilot scheme, have to put a digital record of their index finger print onto an individual chip card. Using scanners and dedicated check-in lanes, biometric card holders will print out their own boarding pass and board the plane through an electronic gate which checks their print and the one on the card. Frequent flyers are set to road test the new technology.

In other fingerprinting news, the US department of Homeland Security is hoping to begin a new program in 2008 that requires all international air travellers departing the US to undergo a fingerprint scan during airport check-in. Airline staff are reportedly upset by the new scheme, arguing that fingerprinting passengers for security purposes is not in their job description.