Airport digital ID pilot projects draw vendor, national players

Pilots of digital ID continue in the air-travel industry, with IDnow joining a public key directory test and Vietnam trying out use of level 2 identification and authentication.

Executives with ID verification firm IDnow say they have joined a pilot program for the International Civil Aviation Organization’s public key directory. Companies accepted for the pilot can temporarily use the directory’s data to verify digital travel and health-proofing documents.

ICAO‘s public key directory holds and shares authenticating data uploaded by 90 aviation authorities for electronic machine-readable travel documents. Participating authorities go to the directory for confirming data rather than going to each nation’s aviation agency.

Twenty-eight companies have joined the project since it began in 2021 as a reaction to the pandemic. ICAO sees opening the data to companies as possibly a way to smooth passenger processing with minimal physical contact.

Twenty-eight companies are in the pilot, according to ICAO, and more are able to join by the July 31 enrolment deadline.

IDnow executives say they will use data stored in the NFC chip of some biometric passports and other documents in the company’s commercial air travel products.

“Being part of this program allows us to verify the authenticity of an electronic ID document and its right origin,” says Lovro Persen, IDnow’s document and fraud director.

The Civil Aviation Authority of Vietnam, which participates in the public key directory, is part of a second pilot.

The agency will try level 2 electronic ID authentication for passengers nationwide this summer. Qualifying passengers will have the option of using use a digital ID instead of a physical card.

To participate, passengers would have to have been verified by a photo or fingerprint matching the biometrics held by the government, according to the state-owned Vietnam News Agency.

Article Topics

airport biometrics  |  biometric passport  |  digital ID  |  digital travel credentials  |  ICAO  |  ICAO PKD  |  IDnow  |  pilot project