The International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) aims to completely eliminate traditional check-in and boarding pass procedures within three years through a new system based on facial recognition technology.
The ICAO, a specialized agency of the United Nations, is preparing for a new era that will radically transform the passenger experience. With digital travel documents and facial recognition systems, the organization plans to launch a revolutionary technology that will entirely remove the need for check-in and boarding passes at airports within the next three years.
Smarter and Faster Travel with Digital Travel Documents
Currently, pre-flight check-in procedures and physical or digital boarding passes are mandatory. However, with the new system, passengers will be able to download a digital travel document to their smartphones, which will automatically update upon ticket purchase.
Additionally, passengers can upload their passports to their phones and use facial recognition for identity verification throughout the airport. This will eliminate the need for pre-flight check-in; identity information will be automatically transmitted to the airline as soon as the passenger enters the airport.
Facial Recognition Technology: A Revolution in Airport Transit
With facial recognition technology in the new system, passengers will be able to pass through checkpoints without interruption. ICAO’s initiative will not only save time but also allow for more orderly and secure management of passenger flow.
“The Biggest Change in the Last 50 Years”
Valerie Viale, a senior executive at travel technology company Amadeus, described this transformation in an interview with The Times as “the biggest change in the last 50 years.”
“In the early 2000s, the transition to electronic ticketing was a major innovation. Now, the industry has decided it’s time to move to more modern systems,” she said.
A Special System Developed for Privacy Concerns
It is known that the new technology raises some concerns about personal data security and privacy. However, Valerie Viale emphasized that the system developed by Amadeus adheres to high privacy standards, stating that passenger data is used only at checkpoints and deleted within 15 seconds.
