SA AIRPORTS COULD SOON VOID PASSPORTS AND BOARDING PASSES
The International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) has proposed that physical boarding passes and passports must be replaced with digital travel credential (DTC) at airports across the world.
This proposal includes airports in South Africa.
The DTC will be available on a person’s cellphone and will make use of facial recognition technology as a verification tool.
The ICAO hopes that it will enable persons to go through airports locally and abroad without stopping or even having to show a single travel document.
The aim of the DTC is to speed up airport check in and security processes while combatting fraud at the same time.
But, is this a soon-to-be reality in South Africa?
According to Andy Smith, director of industry and innovation at Societe Internationale de Telecommunications Aeronautiques (SITA), it’s not that far away.
As one of the main developers of the DTC system, SITA has been part of the journey for a while.
“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 present either their passport or their boarding pass multiple times.”
TopAuto reports that 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.
Image credit: SITA