The Star Alliance has signed an agreement with airline IT provider SITA and technology firm NEC Corp. to expand the use of airport biometric processing technology.

With the agreement, frequent-flyer program members of any Star Alliance airline eventually will be able to access biometric touchpoints at participating airports. SITA’s Smart Path system currently is available in more than 460 airports around the world, and adding NEC to the partnership means they can work on biometric projects together. For example, NEC could integrate its NEC I:Delight platform, which is able to recognize travelers even if they are wearing masks.

“We can scale and extend this solution far beyond our original estimation to a number of other participating airports and airlines,” NEC SVP and chief experience officer Raffie Beroukhim said in a video announcement of the agreement.