We've all been there - frantically looking for a printed ticket or your passport as you stand at the departure gate - panicking that our sun holiday or weekend away is not going to get off the ground.
But the need for a passport or any other documents could soon be a thing of the past, under changes aimed at scrapping printed or physical docs and moving air travel fully into the digital realm. Many airports are already using facial recognition tech at passport control - now the airlines are about to move to what's being called a 'digital travel credential'.
Using the new tech - passengers could basically 'walk through' to their flight, with only the standard security check needed between arriving at the airport and boarding the plane.
The International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), the UN body responsible for crafting airline policy, has confirmed plans to dramatically shake up existing rules for airports and airlines.
Passengers will be able to store passport information on their devices including smartphones, along with their flight details and boarding passes. Any changes in travel plans could be made instantly by the passenger - or updated by airports and airlines. And facial recognition tech - with scanners that automatically pick up and clear digital boarding passes - could speed passengers through boarding gates as quickly as they can walk.
The changes are expected to come into effect at all modern airports withing three years - but they are already exciting airlines like.Ryanair thanks to the promise of rapid boarding and less administrative work at the boarding gates.
Right now, passengers must check in at the airport upon arrival. Travellers are then given with a boarding pass with a barcode, either on their devices or printed out. This boarding pass must be scanned by a passenger at various points throughout the airport, including at security and at the gate before boarding.
With a 'journey pass' - you could walk from the entrance to the airport to the steps of your plane. You will have a digital passport on your phone, and instead of manually checking in, you will use face recognition cameras for verification.
The fully automated system would let airlines know which passengers are checked in and ready to board.
Valérie Viale, the director of product management at Amadeus, a travel technology company, has called the changes “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.”
The changes would radically speed up travel - and also offer automatic re-routing for passengers who miss their flights.
Under the technology being developed, passengers who miss connecting flights due to delays out of their control could automatically be sent a notification on their phones with details of their new onward flight. Their digital journey pass would automatically update and they would be allowed to board the new flight with no need to contact their airlines.
