Jumio Case Study: Alaska Airlines

Jumio ID Verification integration into mobile app speeds up check-in and minimizes frustration for international travelers

Alaska Airlines is more than just an airline — they’re a team of people who are passionate about creating an airline people love. From their roots of connecting remote Alaskan villages to their global presence today, the company has changed quite a bit over the last 93 years. However, their commitment to the communities they serve and their dedication to delivering genuine, caring service for their guests remain constant.

Alaska Airlines has spent the past few years redefining their check-in experience with an emphasis on self-service, digital offerings that minimize the number of stops passengers need to make when arriving at the airport.

ID document verification for international travel was previously managed at full-service counters with customer service agents, or at full-service kiosks. Alaska Airlines replaced these kiosks with simplified bag tag stations to speed up lobby processing times, and also transitioned to an integration with a third-party mobile app for ID verification. In an ongoing effort to provide a seamless travel experience for its guests, Alaska Airlines wanted to replace the third-party vendor with an ID verification solution that could be fully integrated into the airline’s mobile app and web platforms.

How Jumio Helps

After an extensive vetting process that included the development of an initial prototype before full implementation, Alaska Airlines chose Jumio as its preferred vendor in 2024.

“We selected Jumio as the solution that best provides our guests with a seamless travel experience,” said Natalie Bowman, vice president of digital experience at Alaska Airlines. “Through this partnership, guests can verify their travel documents directly in their Alaska Airlines app, saving time in the airport lobby and at their gate.”

Jumio ID Verification allows Alaska Airlines to establish the genuine identity of their guests — both individual travelers and multi-passenger itineraries — by verifying government-issued IDs in real time, automatically. Jumio offers the most comprehensive ID verification solution on the market, accepting and reliably verifying multiple types of government-issued IDs including passports, driver’s licenses and ID cards. In total, Jumio supports more than 5,000 ID subtypes around the globe.

Jumio’s Mobile SDK helps customers like Alaska Airlines generate the highest conversion rates and minimize the amount of friction by designing the ideal onboarding experience for their end users. Integrating Jumio’s SDK into the Alaska Airlines mobile app has resulted in increased self-service adoption and improved ID document scanning accuracy, reducing guest frustration.

“Our goal in 2025 is for at least 50% of our guests to use self-service ID verification, and we are optimistic that Jumio’s impact on the guest experience will play a large role in making that happen,” Bowman said.

The benefits aren’t just limited to Alaska Airlines since their recent combination with Hawaiian Airlines — a Jumio customer since 2021.

“Because Hawaiian Airlines guests are already familiar with Jumio, future technology integration will be much smoother,” Bowman said.

How it Works

1. Acquire

International travelers with U.S. or Canadian passports scan their ID document using the Alaska Airlines mobile app. Jumio uses cutting-edge technologies to get the best possible image quality.

2. Extract

Data is automatically extracted from the passport as part of the verification process to definitively assess its authenticity.

3. Verify

Computer vision, machine learning and AI are used together to verify passports in real time. If authentic, guests are cleared to proceed with the in-app check-in process.