‘This is now, it’s not tomorrow’: with biometrics, future of seamless travel has arrived

The air travel industry has bounced back from the challenges of the pandemic, with significant reinvestment in aircraft, equipment and facilities – technology is enabling it to operate in a whole new way. With biometrics, digital travel credentials (DTCs), standardization and other tools, the industry is transitioning into a stage at which automated, algorithmic systems are fully integrated and broadly applied across the travel spectrum.

Today, the possibility exists to book tickets and store them securely, walk from the entrance to your destination without having to show tickets or identity documents, arrive at your destination and biometrically collect a hired car, then walk into your hotel room without having to present a driver’s license or passport.

If you’re thinking, my last travel experience wasn’t like that, it likely will be soon. In a webinar from Biometric Update exploringing biometric-driven efficiency in travel, Dominic Forrest, CTO at iProov, and Alan Goode of Goode Intelligence join Biometric Update editor-in-chief Chris Burt to discuss how changes on both the regulatory and technological level are accelerating the digitization of travel – and, in doing so, carving template for other sectors.

In Forrest’s view, the days of gates that ask you to slide in your passport and wait five or ten seconds are over. Today, he says, “you can walk past it you don’t necessarily even need to know it’s there, you don’t need to stop you don’t need to wait you don’t need to particularly look at it as you walk past – and it’s with your permission, because you’ve told it you’re just about to arrive.” While border regulations make crossings somewhat more complicated, the walk-through model could also apply to customs.

EUDI Wallet initiative will spur use of digital ID for travel, and soon

The numbers are starting to reflect the shift. Goode says that by 2029, over 1.27 billion travelers will be benefiting from digital identity issued by governments and commercial organizations. Of those, 625 million will be air travelers using digital identities. The EU Digital Identity Wallet (EUDI Wallet) program will be a major driver, and many will be using their EUDI Wallets for exactly this kind of use case in the immediate short-term future.

“Travel is offering a blueprint on how to digitize identity and provide realizable benefits that can be replicated by other sectors,” Goode says, calling it “a great test bed for the wider digital identity market” and “a key sector for growth.”

For those who design and provide digital travel solutions, questions about privacy and bias may seem to miss the technological developments that have enabled technology like secure digital travel credentials to be viable. But they remain a significant concern for many travelers, even if only in the abstract.

Forrest says that, “we always have this concern about usability versus security, but what is great about the use cases in this space is the better you make the user experience, the stronger the security gets.” What’s convenient is also – conveniently – much better equipped for security than human agents.

“We kid ourselves sometimes, I think, as human beings, believing we’re good at recognizing individuals. We are for people we know, but we’re actually surprisingly bad at matching an individual against a photo for a person we’ve never seen before.” Biometric matching systems powered by neural networks and machine learning algorithms are simply much better at it.

Bias boils down to quality training data, capture technology

Once again, some might point to concerns about data privacy and algorithmic bias. Does seamless travel mean seamless for everyone – or additional friction, so to speak, for people with darker skin?

Here, Goode points to a fundamental truth of AI systems (for now): they are what they eat. How well an algorithm performs depends on the datasets used to train it. Goode says “there’s been a remarkable kind of sea change in terms of the quality of data” being used for training, which is slowly helping to eradicate bias. Testing and benchmarking from the National Institute for Standards and Technology (NIST) also helps.

Forrest agrees and says capture is another factor, to ensure poor image quality doesn’t affect performance. Again, the tech is available: “From the capture perspective you can do it now,” and Forrest says that customers” should be demanding of your vendors that they can demonstrate the equality of outcome of the systems. Make sure inclusivity is there.”

The iProov CTO also notes that inclusivity doesn’t stop at skin tone. Systems must be able to work for those with disabilities, with poor connectivity, with older hardware. Henotes W3C WCAG 2.2 AA accessibility guidelines that address use cases for people with poor eyesight and cognitive abilities.

Finally, biometrics in the travel experience should remain a choice. But Forrest believes the product will ultimately sell itself. “Not only does it drive up your operational efficiency and hence reduce the cost,” he says. “It’s a competitive advantage for those airlines and airports that do it. Because we all hate standing in queues at airports. Wherever it may be, if we’re in a queue, we’d always rather go somewhere where you don’t have to queue.”

Put another way, even when customers browse for travel destination ideas, they expect to use their digital devices and mobile phones. Writing in AI Business, Mitrankur Majumdar, SVP and global head of services for Infosys, argues that “airlines must act like ‘retailers with wings’ to make the experience memorable and repeatable” for customers who live in a digital age.

To stay luxurious, business travel must go biometric

According to the Global Business Travel Association (GBTA), global business travel spending is projected to reach US$1.64 trillion in 2025. The point of business travel categories is to ease the strain of frequent flying; as such, biometric and digital ID tools are a key element in modernizing the business travel experience.

Amadeus and Globetrender have published a forecast of business travel trends in 2025. In a release, Chief Commercial Officer Mark Cullen says that “in 2025, business travelers are increasingly aware of the impact their journeys have on both their well‑being and the environment. Meanwhile, Investments in new transformational technologies are helping travel providers enhance the overall experience, making business trips smoother and more efficient while also allowing providers to allocate resources more effectively.”

Notable trends include so-called Agentic AI, meaning algorithmic AI agents that will “autonomously anticipate traveler needs, helping them to rebook flights in real-time, optimize itineraries based on changing schedules, and even help travel managers negotiate hotel rates, as well as create, audit and approve expense reports.”

(The concept also comes up in a EuroNews interview with Booking.com Glenn Fogel, which notes that “agentic AI is likely to allow the entire travel industry network, from consumer to supplier and the partners in between to coordinate through their own AI agents and plan travel solutions” – and that, “this will, unfortunately, be likely to lead to job losses, particularly in the customer service area.”)

Beyond AI, biometric gateways, such as those powered by Vision-Box, offer “smooth, fuss-free journeys; soon, travelers will be able to move through the airport without repeatedly showing travel documents or waiting in long queues, by simply having their face scanned at key touch points.”

Change is in the air as new travel systems, frameworks come online

Across the globe, changes in policy and practice are reflecting the new travel reality. An article in Forbes Middle East runs down some key travel rule changes in 2025, from Ryanair disallowing physical boarding passes altogether, to the activation of the European Travel Information and Authorization System (ETIAS), the UK Electronic Travel Authorization (ETA), and REAL ID in the U.S.A.

The piece also notes Kuwait’s new ban on residents who have not undergone biometric fingerprinting from traveling. “The ban cannot be lifted from ministry systems until the fingerprinting is completed,” it says. “These rules affect both expatriates and residents in Kuwait.”

Travelpulse Canada reports on the International Air Transport Association (IATA)’s recent World Data Symposium, where executives from Air Canada and 4sure Technology Solutions discussed a digital wallet product they’ve been working on with Turkish Airlines, which would provide unprecedented interconnectivity and “transform the way agencies, advisors, and airlines interact.”

Hilas Demirtas of Turkish Airlines describes a “single solution framework for all airlines” including a “new, seamless and passwordless login process.” Mathieu Glaude, CEO of software partner 4sure Technology Solutions, says the project is “building a trust fabric that is applicable to the entire ecosystem.”

Article Topics

Amadeus  |  biometric-bias  |  biometrics  |  digital ID  |  digital travel  |  digital travel credentials  |  digital wallets  |  EU Digital Identity Wallet  |  face biometrics  |  iProov