The future of air travel could be very different in a post-COVID world, with the expansion of biometric testing and an effort to reduce the amount of surfaces and staff that travellers come into contact with when flying.
Airports are already very different places than they were last year, with extra screening, police checks and health warnings now in place.
COVID-19 has only accelerated the move by authorities to introduce more automation and data collection, according to Dr Leonardo de Moraes, a postdoctoral research fellow in tourism, resilience and planning at the University of Melbourne.
"I anticipate that with the use of artificial intelligence and all the information systems that are growing, especially now with COVID-19, with contact tracing, that the management of travellers while at the airport will improve considerably," he said.
Your face could be your boarding pass
Perth Airport is already planning a major upgrade to embrace automation, with plans to introduce biometric facial recognition technology by 2022.
Perth Airport CEO Kevin Brown told the ABC's AM program it was part of a broader plan to reduce the amount of surfaces people need to touch, and to minimise human interaction.
"You can check in online with your phone and as you come to the airport the machine recognises you as you come up to it," he said.
"You don't need a boarding card; your biometrics — your face — effectively is going to take you through embarkation, border control and then as you turn up at the departure gate to get onto your aircraft you're getting on the same automated gate.
"You don't have to keep taking your boarding pass and taking documents out of your pockets and taking documents back and forward."
Airports important in reducing spread of virus and reopening travel
As international travel begins again in earnest, airports will be at the forefront of managing COVID-19 risk around the world, according to Dr de Moraes.
"There's so much talk about international travel bubbles because there is a co-dependence between what's happening in these airports once these international routes are re-established," he said.
Automation will play a roll, he explained, including by allowing for "having very precise schedules for arrival and departure that try to minimise crowding at the airport at times".
"Something we don't think about much but that makes a big difference is where the airplanes dock at the airport once they are at the airport — if you distribute that in a good way, you're minimising crowding at the airport as well."
