For years, the application of digital identity in air travel has been presented as inevitable. Passengers would walk through airports without repeatedly showing passports or boarding passes, their identity securely verified through biometrics once and reused throughout the journey.
That vision is now moving from demonstrations to operational deployments.
Industry pilots involving airlines, airports, technology providers and governments have accelerated over the past year. The experts PhocusWire spoke to said the technical foundations for seamless travel are now largely in place. The focus is shifting toward interoperability, government policy and international coordination.
“We are very close to seeing that mass adoption in one or two years,” said Younkyung Kim, senior manager for customer experience at the International Air Transport Association (IATA), citing increased engagement among stakeholders including airlines, airports, governments and digital wallet providers.
Technology is no longer the main hurdle
Both IATA and Amadeus agree that the industry's biggest obstacle is no longer proving that digital identity technology works; it's connecting the pieces across borders.
“The technology is already there,” said Alessandro Minucci, who leads seamless travel initiatives at Amadeus. “We are in a maturity curve of overall biometric implementation and digital ID at the government level.”
Governments are increasingly introducing digital identity frameworks, from European Digital Identity (EUDI) Wallets to government-backed digital credentials in countries such as China, India and Brazil.
According to Minucci, the aviation industry has reached what he calls the “last mile” of digital identity maturity, as trusted, government-issued credentials are increasingly available alongside biometric verification. The remaining challenge is connecting these different systems across borders and travel stakeholders.
Examples are already emerging worldwide.
Amadeus pointed to Curaçao's mobile-based border processing, Indonesia's contactless biometric corridors, Manchester Airport's biometric passenger journey and even MSC Cruises' biometric terminal in Miami as evidence that end-to-end digital identity is no longer experimental—it is now viable and operational.
Trials become operations
One of the clearest indicators of progress has been IATA's recent Contactless Travel proof of concept, which brought together airlines, airports and six different digital wallet providers—including Google, Apple, NEC, SITA, Idemia and IATA's own wallet—to demonstrate how digital credentials could move seamlessly through the travel journey rather than remaining confined within individual systems.
The initiative also explored how online travel agencies such as Trip.com could securely transfer verified identity information during the booking process.
“In all, the group moved along really fast and really far,” said Gabriel Marquie, IATA's head of digital identity and access management. “I think it was really positive in the sense that everybody is ready to play and to provide solutions to support the vision.”
Rather than exposing fundamental technological shortcomings, the exercise identified areas where standards still require refinement, particularly around interoperability between systems and simplifying the customer experience.
SITA participated in the Bengaluru Airport proof-of-concept, where passengers moved through terminal entry, security and boarding using digital identity credentials stored securely on smartphones and verified through biometrics. Identity was created once from a passport and then securely reused throughout the airport journey with the passenger's consent.
Governments set the pace, remain critical stakeholders
All three organizations were interviewed independently and reached the same conclusion: Future progress now depends less on software development than on government participation.
IATA said its top priority over the next three years will be to work directly with governments to encourage regulatory support for internationally interoperable digital identity credentials.
Over the past year, airlines, airports, governments and technology providers have accelerated trials of digital identity and biometric travel while industry standards have matured. The consensus is that the next phase is ensuring that governments, border agencies and travel stakeholders can trust and recognize digital identities across borders.
“The most important progress is that digital ID has moved from aspiration to execution,” said Raoul Cooper, digital identity director at SITA Borders. “What was once largely conceptual is now being tested, deployed and standardized to deliver tangible improvements to the journey—because passengers are demanding it.”
Despite this progress, SITA, IATA and Amadeus also agreed on the same remaining challenge: greater government adoption.
“Government needs to support what the industry is doing,” said IATA's Kim. Governments also need to determine “whether their current regulatory frameworks are supporting or not preventing airlines and airports from adopting digital identity credentials and biometrics.”
SITA noted that building trust in cross-border digital ID integrations will be critical.
“Digital identity is only as powerful as the trust around it,” said Stephen Challis, head of passenger flow at SITA Airports. “It has to work across countries, across systems and across institutions in a way that is secure, verifiable and practical for real operations.”
The potential complications of cross-border digital ID initiatives became particularly evident in Europe, where the implementation of the Entry/Exit System (EES) has been delayed amid concerns about passenger processing times and airport readiness.
Minucci believes those difficulties should not be viewed simply as failures of technology.
“The technology is ready,” he said, arguing that bottlenecks, such as those experienced with EES in Europe, result from airports already operating beyond their intended capacity.
Factors including staffing levels, kiosk placement, enrollment processes and terminal design all affect throughput as much as software itself. Minucci suggested that decentralizing passenger enrollment before travelers reach airports could significantly reduce congestion at border checkpoints.
Passenger demand is already there
While governments continue to work through regulations and procedures, travelers themselves appear increasingly comfortable with digital identity.
IATA said airlines believe adoption will be accelerated by using smartphone-native wallets that passengers already rely upon for payment cards, loyalty programs and tickets. Government-issued digital identity credentials integrated into those wallets would require far less behavioral change than entirely new applications.
Industry research also suggests demand is growing. According to IATA's global passenger surveys, roughly 80% of travelers would like smartphones to manage more of their travel credentials, while enthusiasm among younger travelers approaches 90%.
How close are we to truly seamless travel?
Perhaps the biggest change over the past three years has been industry confidence.
“I didn't really believe that it would happen soon,” Kim said. “But now that it's 2026 ... it is really happening, and I would say we are very close to seeing that mass adoption in one or two years.”
Marquie agrees that momentum is accelerating, pointing to India's DigiYatra program—which has already enabled around 100 million biometric journeys—as evidence that digital identity can operate at a national scale. EUDI Wallet pilots and continued progress on International Civil Aviation Organization Digital Travel Credential standards are also strengthening the outlook.
Looking further ahead, Minucci expects the transition away from physical passports to be gradual. Even once fully digital travel credentials become available, existing passports will remain valid until they expire, meaning physical and digital documents are likely to coexist for at least a decade after governments begin issuing fully digital credentials.
The next phase: Consistency at scale
The industry increasingly agrees that the remaining challenge is no longer inventing new technology but ensuring that trusted identity can move consistently between airlines, airports and governments regardless of geography.
“It's inspiring to see everybody coming around the table and collaborating to make a better customer journey a reality,” Marquie told PhocusWire.
For SITA, success will ultimately depend on making that experience consistent rather than exceptional.
“Consistency at scale is what comes next,” Challis said. “When digital identity reaches that point, and works everywhere, the travel experience changes completely.”
Minucci is similarly optimistic about the trajectory of global Digital ID adoption in air travel.
“Technology is already there to support all of that,” he said. “The next few years are highly likely to see exponential growth in those implementations.”