BigBear.ai, listed in New York, supplies veriScan, the biometric system US Customs and Border Protection uses to match arriving travellers' faces with their passports. Its Pangiam unit also makes AI threat detection for security screening.
Founded in 2018 and based in McLean, Virginia, with 501 to 1,000 staff, it gained veriScan with Pangiam in early 2024; the product began at the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority. Pangiam's threat detection holds Dutch national approval for airport screening and integrates with Analogic's CT scanners, and CargoSeer inspects cargo shipments.
veriScan runs at entry ports including New York JFK (JFK), Dallas/Fort Worth (DFW), Denver (DEN), Charlotte (CLT) and Nashville (BNA). An upgrade at Chicago O'Hare (ORD) in 2025 cut processing from 60 seconds to 10, the company says. Its planned 250 million US dollar purchase of Ask Sage has not yet been confirmed as closed.
Aviation AI deployments and updates
01 / Deployed · limited scope
BigBear.ai veriScan biometric system for CBP Enhanced Passenger Processing at O'Hare
BigBear.ai said on 23 October 2025 that its veriScan biometric system supported CBP Enhanced Passenger Processing at O'Hare international arrivals, and that it cut average processing from 60 to 10 seconds per traveller.
Arriving US citizens at Nashville International's International Arrivals Facility go through Enhanced Passenger Processing with BigBear.ai's veriScan biometric system, the company said on 11 September 2025.
DFW introduced one-step biometric boarding on 9 July 2019 with Emirates on the daily DFW to Dubai flight, EK222, removing the need to show a boarding pass at the gate. A tablet at the gate takes the passenger's photo, which is matched against passport records before boarding is cleared, according to DFW's announcement.
The software, veriScan, was developed by the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority. It encrypts the photos and sends them to the US Customs and Border Protection Traveler Verification Service, which carries out the identity match. CBP's DFW location page, last modified on 5 September 2025, lists biometric technology available for both entry and exit.
Neither DFW nor CBP describes how the matching algorithm works. Gate coverage and how many airlines now use veriScan at DFW had not been published as of 16 October 2026.
BigBear.ai lists Montréal-Trudeau among the sites using its biometric system for Enhanced Passenger Processing, which streamlines international arrivals, in a release of 17 June 2025.
JFKIAT announced a collaboration to launch Enhanced Passenger Processing for international arrivals with US Customs and Border Protection and BigBear.ai, Airport Improvement reported on 6 June 2025. Eleven days later BigBear.ai listed JFK's Terminals 4 and 8 among its deployments for the process.
Denver International installed biometric boarding devices using facial recognition at 15 international gates on concourses A and C, the airport said on 3 September 2024. BigBear.ai said on 28 October 2024 that its veriScan system was in use at 14 international departure gates at the airport. US Customs and Border Protection separately lists Denver as an Enhanced Passenger Processing location for arriving travellers. The two gate counts come from different sources at different dates.
Charlotte Douglas joined US Customs and Border Protection's test programme for Enhanced Passenger Processing of arriving international passengers in early February 2025, the airport said on 11 April 2025.
BigBear.ai listed CLT among the sites using its veriScan system for the process in a release of 17 June 2025.
BigBear.ai announced on 2 August 2024 that it had signed a master service agreement with Heathrow "to develop and deliver advanced technologies" at the airport. The company had referred to the agreement a day earlier in exhibits to an 8-K filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission dated 1 August 2024.
A master service agreement sets terms for future pieces of work; it does not by itself commit either side to a project. BigBear.ai's release says this one "allows for a wide range of potential projects" aimed at security, operational effectiveness and the traveller experience, and points to its Vision AI portfolio, including image-based anomaly and threat detection, alongside advanced analytics and digital twin capabilities.
No project, site or go-live under the agreement had been announced by BigBear.ai or Heathrow as of 15 October 2026, and neither has published a timetable for one. All descriptions of scope come from BigBear.ai.
A biometric identity platform that uses facial recognition to support the US Customs and Border Protection Enhanced Passenger Processing programme at international airports, enabling secure and accelerated international arrivals processing for US citizens.
The problem it addresses
Streamlines international arrivals for US citizens at airports and ports of entry, enhancing biometric identity verification while reducing processing time for US CBP Enhanced Passenger Processing.
Key features
Facial biometric identity verification
Integration with US CBP Enhanced Passenger Processing programme
Deployment at major US international airports and ports of entry
Supports US citizen international arrivals processing
Pangiam Threat Detection - Security Lane and Decision Support Platform
An AI-powered computer vision screening and decision support platform for airport baggage security operations. The platform detects prohibited items in baggage using advanced algorithms applied to CT and X-ray scanner outputs.
The problem it addresses
Improves detection of prohibited items in airport baggage screening, reduces false alarms, increases throughput, and provides airport security managers with real-time controls and intelligence-led screening options while adapting to emerging threat environments.
Key features
Real-time AI threat detection from CT and X-ray scanner data
Open architecture design supporting integration with multiple OEM scanners
Security Lane Platform with threat alerts integrated into OEM screens
Decision Support Platform with real-time security detection performance data
5 more features
Dynamic alert threshold controls for security managers
Intelligence-led automated bag reject capability
Modular design preventing vendor lock-in
Interoperable with Smiths Detection HI-SCAN 6040 CTiX CT scanners
Interoperable with Analogic ConneCT checkpoint CT systems
Technical specifications (4)
Computer vision algorithms for CT and X-ray image analysis
Open architecture compliant with OA standards
Originally developed under Project Dartmouth initiative
Supports third-party detection algorithms and decision support tools
Verified deployments
London Heathrow (LHR) – BigBear.ai master service agreement with Heathrow for potential AI projects
AI software platform supporting enhanced Non-Intrusive Inspection (NII) for cargo. Combines automated image analysis, computer vision, and machine learning with trade and cargo data to assist customs authority operators in identifying high-risk shipments at ports of entry.
The problem it addresses
Addresses the challenge of efficiently screening high volumes of cargo for threats and illicit goods at ports of entry. Enables customs operators to rapidly triage shipments using automated image analysis and risk scoring, reducing manual inspection workload and improving detection rates.
Key features
Automated image analysis of cargo scan data
Computer vision processing for cargo content identification
Machine learning coupled with trade and cargo data for risk profiling
Enhanced Non-Intrusive Inspection (NII) support
2 more features
High-risk shipment identification and threat detection
Inspection efficiency improvement across ports of entry
Profile data from the Aerostack companies register; deployment records from the verified register. Evidence grades: T1 first-party confirmation, T2 credible reporting. See Our approach for how records are graded.
Aerostack companies register
Aerostack tracks AI deployments across airports and airlines, with the published evidence behind each record. Photography is real aviation imagery. Record thumbnails may show the named airport or airline; other photographs do not.