Check-in disappears into thin air

For all the ways air travel has evolved, there’s been one constant: the ritual of check- in. Long lines, paper boarding passes, awkward self-service kiosks, and gate agents manually scanning barcodes. But there is new hope that the ritual is on the brink of extinction.

The International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) has laid out a radical vision: by 2028, international travellers could bypass check-in desks entirely, no longer need to present passports at security, and walk through boarding gates without a boarding pass. The era of the digital travel credential has arrived. This future is being architected by ICAO in collaboration with leading travel tech firms and national governments.

The goal is to create a global digital identity system for travellers, anchored in biometric recognition and controlled by individuals on their mobile devices. In short, your face becomes your passport, and your phone replaces every document you used to carry. “The boarding pass and check-in process as we know it will be obsolete,” said an ICAO working group representative. “We are working towards a seamless, contactless journey. The only thing passengers need to do is show up.”

The concept hinges on a few key technologies. First, a digital travel credential (DTC), built on international standards, will contain a passenger’s verified identity data. Second, biometric systems will recognise and verify travellers at key points: airport entry, security, gate boarding. Third, integration across airports, airlines and governments will allow for dynamic permission-based access to that data — shared only when necessary, and deleted within seconds.

Travel tech firm Amadeus, which is closely involved in the standardisation effort, said their systems can erase personally identifiable data within 15 seconds of processing it, assuaging long-standing privacy fears. The move is driven by global pressure on airport infrastructure.

According to IATA (International Air Transport Association), the number of air travellers is expected to reach 8.5-billion annually by 2037, up from 4.5 billion pre-pandemic. Traditional airport design cannot scale to meet that surge without digital transformation. In cities like Dubai and Singapore, facial recognition is already replacing boarding passes. But until now, implementations have been localised and fragmented. ICAO’s push for a universal DTC means systems will have to be interoperable globally – a far more complex challenge than installing new scanners.

“The ambition is to make your face your ID, and your phone your proof of everything else,” said an ICAO representative. “It’s not only about convenience, but also about sustainability and scalability.”

Sustainability is a critical factor. Removing printed boarding passes and physical ID verification saves paper and energy, and cuts down on the physical infrastructure needed to process passengers. Self-service kiosks, security bottlenecks and manual identity checks become redundant when facial recognition gates can process 30 passengers per minute. Still, the shift raises urgent ethical and technical questions.

Who owns the data?
What happens if your digital ID is compromised? How do passengers opt out? ICAO has stated that the system will be designed with “privacy by default”, meaning travellers can choose what data to share and when. But that assumes a level of digital literacy and trust that doesn’t exist universally.

On the back end, the new system demands the kind of real-time data handling and resilience that only a handful of technology providers currently offer. Cloud platforms will need to coordinate hundreds of millions of passenger verifications daily, without downtime or error.

Enter the familiar names of the travel tech world: SITA, Amadeus, Google Cloud. Their infrastructure will form the nervous system of this new reality. Their algorithms will determine whether you are who you say you are. And their data centres will hold the keys to global mobility – if only briefly. As with all things digital, the promise is speed and efficiency. But speed must not come at the cost of scrutiny. Systems this complex are prone to failure and vulnerable to abuse. Biometric matching at scale carries a non-trivial risk of false positives or missed matches. For passengers wrongly flagged, the seamless journey could quickly become a security ordeal.

The geopolitical layer will also, no doubt, delay universal implementation. Some governments will insist on storing passenger data locally. Others will resist foreign control of identification systems. The idea of a single global standard is ambitious, but enforcement and compliance will be uneven. Still, ICAO’s roadmap has momentum. At the summit, it was clear that airlines and airports see no alternative. Staffing shortages, overcrowding and rising passenger numbers make automation essential.

One of the more surprising voices this month from South Africa – not in the context of passenger travel, but from the cargo sector. Airports Company South Africa (ACSA), represented by CEO Mpumi Mpofu, made a compelling case for a parallel digital revolution in air freight. “Digitisation increases efficiency, reduces turnaround times, and improves accuracy,” said Mpofu, calling for standardised data requirements and cross-border systems that support seamless cargo movement. “But governments must play their part by reducing the complexity of cross-border documentation.”

Speaking at the ICAO Global Air Cargo Summit in Antalya, she positioned O.R. Tambo International Airport (ORTIA) as a regional leader in digital cargo operations. With AI-driven systems, robotics and automated storage already being deployed, ORTIA’s cargo terminal has won the African Cargo Airport of the Year award five times since 2013.

While the passenger side of air travel wrestles with biometrics and mobile IDs, the cargo sector is confronting its own digital dilemma – and in some ways, moving faster. “Blockchain ensures transparency and trust in the supply chain, while AI can streamline inspections and automate risk detection,” said Mpofu.

She also made a broader point that resonates across the aviation world: “The future depends on adopting smarter, cleaner technologies and closer collaboration among stakeholders.” Her comments serve as a reminder that even as futuristic visions of seamless boarding dominate the headlines, real progress often begins in less glamorous spaces, like warehouses and customs bays. That digital identity isn’t only about people, but also about packages, manifests and trade flows.

* Arthur Goldstuck is CEO of World Wide Worx and editor-in-chief of Gadget.co.za. Follow him on Bluesky on @art2gee.bsky.social.