ICAO mulls over digital travel credentials

The International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) is considering  replacing conventional passports with digital travel credentials (DTCs). Noting that there are already several proprietary systems for DTCs, the ICAO’s Traveller Identification Programme in collaboration with the New Technologies Working Group, Digital Travel Credential Sub-Group, has started working on standardising travel identification information. The proposed DTCs could be used by airlines and airports, as well as border control and immigration for seamless passenger identification and verification, resulting in more efficient services. The ICAO Technical Advisory Group for the Traveller Identification Programme (TAG/TRIP) has endorsed the first step for DTCs that will extract data from physical passports to digital devices such as mobile phones.