The International Civil Aviation Organization within the United Nations is working to overhaul the flying industry by getting rid of boarding passes and the need to check-in for flights.
In the biggest shift within the aviation industry in 50 years, the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), a governing body within the United Nations, announced that boarding passes and the need to check-in for flights will be removed in exchange for new digital “journal passes” that hold all relevant information needed to take a flight.
According to The Times, in the future passengers will be able to upload their passports to their phone to go through airports using only their faces for verification. The ICAO says this will likely be implemented within “two to three years.”
Passengers will be able to download their “journey pass” to their phone when they book a flight. If any changes are made to the individuals booking, the pass will automatically update. Instead of checking in, airlines will be automatically alerted to a passenger’s intention to fly once they arrive at the airport and their face is scanned. This will take place at a bag drop for individuals with hold luggage.
For those with hand-luggage, their faces will be scanned at the pre-security gates. “These changes are the biggest in 50 years,” said Valérie Viale, director of product management at Amadeus, the world’s largest travel technology company.
“Many airline systems haven’t changed for more than 50 years because everything has to be consistent across the industry and interoperable.”
“The last upgrade of great scale was the adoption of e-ticketing in the early 2000s. The industry has now decided its time to upgrade to modern systems that are more like what Amazon would use,” Viale explained.
In order to accomplish this major shift in air travel, a lot of physical infrastructure will need to be upgraded. For instance, facial recognition technology and the ability to read a passport through a mobile device will need to be implemented.
The “journey pass” will be stored in your smartphone’s wallet application. Within the app, a passenger’s booking details and any additional information, such as car rentals through the airport, will be stored with their biometric passport details.
Facial recognition technology implemented within the airports will allow passengers to move throughout the airport without taking their phone or passport out, and the system will wipe the details within 15 seconds of contact at the touchpoints, The Times reported.
“At the moment airlines have systems that are very siloed,” Viale said.
“There’s the reservation system that, when check-in opens, makes a handshake with a delivery system and says ‘here are my reservations, you can now deliver them.’ In the future it’ll be far more continuous and the ‘journey pass’ will be dynamic.”
With these new advancements, passengers will also be able to share their location with the airline if they choose to. This will give their devices the ability to provide directions to their departure gate from where they are in the airport, and send notifications with offers for lounge access.
So far, British Airways, Air France-KLM, Finnair, and Saudia Airlines are already looking deeply at this technology. British Airways stated that their “suite of digital experience tools [will allow us] to anticipate the needs of modern, digital travelers, providing them with exceptional experiences across their journey.
The upgrades will allow passengers to buy cabin upgrades, alert airline partners on delays, and notify car companies if passengers are going to be late getting their booked car due to delays. There’s even discussions of tracking luggage.
Other airline advancements include upgraded CT scanners that make it so passengers no longer need to remove laptops or liquids from their bags at security, many UK airports have already implemented them.
Eric Mastrota is a Contributing Editor at The National Digest based in New York. A graduate of SUNY New Paltz, he reports on world news, culture, and lifestyle. You can reach him at eric.mastrota@thenationaldigest.com.
