By Louise Cairney, Head of Customer Experience and Facilitation
Imagine never needing a paper passport at the airport. You walk in and simply scan your face—no check-in desk, no printed boarding pass, no fumbling for documents. This isn’t science fiction. It is the future airlines and airports are actively building.
So why are we not all traveling this way yet?
The core of seamless travel is the Digital Travel Credential (DTC). This is a secure, digital version of your passport, developed by ICAO, the United Nations' aviation agency. The DTC mirrors your physical passport in digital form.
The problem is that the DTC currently bundles all your passport data together into one indivisible file. While this works for border control—which needs your full identity details—it’s problematic for airlines, which only require a subset like name, date of birth, and sometimes nationality. Sharing the entire file would likely violate data protection laws like the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), which require companies to only collect what is strictly necessary.
Paradoxically, the system designed to enable seamless travel is slowing it down.
The solution is data minimization—sharing only what’s necessary. Simply, the idea is to split each data element of your digital passport—name, nationality, date of birth, passport number—into individual, encrypted data envelopes so that only the necessary data envelopes needed for a specific process are released.
Each envelope is protected and can only be opened with a passenger’s consent. This safeguards personal data while ensuring automated processes still work. The key difference is control. The passenger decides what is shared.
There are two options ICAO could explore to address this:
Issuing global international standards takes time. Yet, the aviation industry and some governments are moving ahead, developing standards, running pilots, and working with providers to build technology for seamless digital travel.
A key driver of this work is IATA’s One ID, a global framework for a paperless journey using digital identity and biometrics. The DTC is the secure digital passport, while One ID defines how to use it to verify identity, manage consent, and share only necessary data to create a seamless passenger experience.
There is also strong momentum around policy. A G7 mapping exercise of digital identity approaches was conducted by the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), providing commonalities and differences in national digital identity frameworks. This work is now informing global policy discussions and contributing to emerging technical standards for cross-border interoperability.
In parallel, in October 2024, the European Commission proposed new legislation to support digital passports and ID cards for cross-border travel within the EU. The aim is to create a common framework that allows digital identities issued in one member state to be recognized across all others.
Digital travel is no longer just theoretical. A growing number of airlines allow passengers to check in, clear security, and board using just their face and phone. The technologies are proven, and successful pilot programs are being scaled. And while full digital interoperability across borders is not universal, progress is accelerating.
A growing number of governments and airlines are piloting proprietary digital identity solutions. For example, India’s Digi Yatra program is operational in 24 airports. It allows domestic passengers to use facial recognition linked to a verified digital ID. Passengers register via an app using government-issued credentials and once enrolled, they can pass through the airport from entry to security to boarding without showing physical documents.
Beyond this, at least seven other countries now officially accept digital ID for domestic air travel, a trend that is driving demand for international standardization. Worldwide, biometric systems have already been implemented at 70 airports.
To help airlines capitalize on this growing infrastructure, IATA has launched a Contactless Travel Directory, a matchmaking tool that identifies which airports offer contactless services.
What remains is alignment. Until the DTC is updated to support data minimization, and until governments harmonize standards across borders, seamless travel will remain limited in scope.
In the meantime, the industry and some governments are moving forward and preparing for the necessary scale. Your face and phone may not be enough just yet, but the journey towards digital-by-default travel is fast becoming a reality.
