Say goodbye to passports and boarding passes at South African airports

Potential new airport laws may cancel out passports and boarding passes at aviation hubs around the world, including South Africa.

The International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) has put forth a proposal to replace physical boarding passes and passports with a so-called “digital travel credential” (DTC) at airports across the globe.

The DTC will be on travellers’ smartphones and employ facial recognition technology to verify their identities every step of the way.

This will allow individuals to go through airports at their home and end destinations without stopping or even showing a travel document.

The ICAO maintains that the implementation of such systems will speed up airport processes whilst also cutting down on fraud.

Seamless airport experiences

Andy Smith, director of industry and innovation at Société Internationale de Télécommunications Aéronautiques (SITA), told local radio station 702 that the implementation of the DTC is within reach.

SITA is one of the main developers of the system and is working closely with the ICAO on its international rollout.

“It’s a very exciting journey and one we’ve been on for a while,” said Smith.

“Where we’re getting to now is the ability for travellers to get a very positive idea that they are going to be able to travel through an airport, across borders, seamlessly and without having to multiple times present either their passport or their boarding pass.”

Smith highlighted that international travellers are increasingly required to jump through hoops when they move between countries.

Overseas journeys nowadays regularly require people to show travel authorisations, visas, planned arrival and departure dates, as well as identity documents.

“It’s become a very complex environment, and what the industry has been developing over the last number of years is the ability for travellers to simply and easily, where they want to, do a lot of this airport and airline processing away from those environments,” said Smith.

He said that the DTC will allow fliers to verify their identity and process documents from the comfort of their own home where things may be a little less stressful, or anywhere else they please.

They will also be able to create a digital copy of their passport on their smartphone that complies with internationally recognised standards so that governments around the world can trust it.

“Before you set out for the airport, you know that you have completed all the airline processes,” said Smith.

“You know that you’re going to have a seamless experience through the airport, and more importantly, when you get to your destination you’re going to have a very simplified arrival experience.”

The usage of these digital credentials will fortunately be on a voluntary basis, and they’ll only be accessible on modern smartphones with facial-recognition tech.