Checking in for flights and traditional boarding passes could soon become a thing of the past.
Drastically new rules for air travel will be in place within two to three years, according to the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO), the UN body responsible for policy.
They would let passengers can upload their passport to their phones and pass departure gates by having their face scanned.
Those privileges would be part of a ‘digital travel credential’ to be introduced by the ICAO, according to The Times.
Passengers would be allowed to download a ‘journey pass’ when they book their flight, erasing the need to check in and get a boarding pass.
At the airport they would be checked by facial recognition scanners, proceed to a bag drop if they have hold luggage, then move to security.
Valérie Viale, the director of product management at Amadeus, a travel technology company, told the Times that the changes were ‘the biggest in 50 years’.
She said: ‘The last upgrade of great scale was the adoption of e-ticketing in the early 2000s.
‘The industry has now decided it’s time to upgrade to modern systems that are more like what Amazon would use.’
Industry figures say privacy concerns would be addressed by having passenger data deleted within 15 seconds of each point of contact.
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