{"id":882217,"date":"2026-10-31T07:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-10-31T05:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=882217"},"modified":"2026-10-30T15:49:19","modified_gmt":"2026-10-30T13:49:19","slug":"say-goodbye-to-boarding-passes-and-passports-at-airports","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/technology\/882217\/say-goodbye-to-boarding-passes-and-passports-at-airports\/","title":{"rendered":"Say goodbye to boarding passes and passports at airports"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

South Africans and travellers around the world could eventually say goodbye to traditional passports and boarding passes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This comes as the aviation industry moves towards digital travel credentials and biometric airport security systems. The shift is being driven by demand for faster, simpler, and more convenient travel.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Data shows that passengers are increasingly willing to use technology to reduce the time spent checking in, boarding flights, and passing through immigration.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A global survey by the International Air Transport Association (IATA), which collected more than 10,000 responses from over 200 countries, found that just over 80% of passengers were interested in using digital passports for online check-in.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, according to Linden Birns, managing director of Plane Talking, while travellers appear ready to embrace the technology, governments are struggling to keep pace.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Birns said one of the survey’s biggest findings was the gap between passengers’ willingness to adopt digital travel solutions and governments’ ability to implement them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Governments still use different passport systems, travel authorisations, and visa requirements, making it difficult for digital credentials to work seamlessly across international borders.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Birns said many countries had also not followed the passport recommendations of the United Nations’ International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO), which established international standards for aviation and travel documents.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The lack of consistency has created problems at airports, including situations where passengers attempt to use electronic immigration gates that cannot recognise passports issued by certain countries.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to Birns, establishing common standards and ensuring that different countries’ systems can communicate with one another will be one of the biggest challenges facing the industry.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, Birns said governments had a strong incentive to modernise their systems, especially if they wanted to attract international tourism, trade, and investment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He pointed to South Africa as an example of a country looking to improve its systems, with the Department of Home Affairs and the Border Management Authority exploring ways to modernise travel and border processes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Digital services at airports within reach <\/h2>\n\n\n
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Linden Birns, managing director of Plane Talking<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n

However, implementing digital travel credentials will require significant investment and cooperation between different government departments and organisations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In South Africa, this would include Home Affairs, the Border Management Authority, Airports Company South Africa and the South African Revenue Service.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Birns said the benefits could extend well beyond replacing physical passports and boarding passes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Digital travel credentials could eventually be used across a much wider range of services, including airport security, border controls, hotel check-ins and airline bookings.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, the move towards biometric identification and digital passports also raised concerns about personal information and data security.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The IATA survey found that around 60% of respondents were concerned about biometric data breaches.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Birns said the biggest concerns included the possibility of personal information being stolen, how biometric information would be shared with other organisations, and a lack of clarity around how data would be stored and managed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He said governments would need to agree on a common framework for issuing and accepting digital passports and travel credentials, as well as for protecting personal information.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The good news is that South Africa and the broader international aviation industry are moving towards digital services.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Earlier this year, Andy Smith, director of industry and innovation at SITA, said the technology is now within reach. \u201cIt\u2019s a very exciting journey and one we\u2019ve been on for a while,\u201d said Smith.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhere we\u2019re getting to now is the ability for travellers to get a very positive idea that they are going to be able to travel through an airport, across borders, seamlessly and without having to present either their passport or their boarding pass.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Smith said the system would allow travellers to complete much of the process before even leaving for the airport.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cBefore you set out for the airport, you know that you have completed all the airline processes,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cYou know that you\u2019re going to have a seamless experience through the airport, and more importantly, when you get to your destination, you\u2019re going to have a very simplified arrival experience.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

IATA noted that governments can now begin putting in place legal, technical, and operational frameworks to issue and accept these Digital Travel Credentials across borders.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

South Africans and travellers around the world could eventually say goodbye to traditional passports and boarding passes.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":92,"featured_media":856256,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_sma_x_autopost_status":"posted","_sma_x_autopost_error":"","_sma_x_post_id":"2116396028643447257","_sma_facebook_post_id":"191437357620492_2255512025269196","_sma_instagram_post_id":"17896906878613613","_sma_x_attempts":1,"footnotes":""},"categories":[9878],"tags":[19938,26999,26998,853],"class_list":["post-882217","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-technology","tag-international-air-transport-association-iata","tag-international-civil-aviation-organisation-icao","tag-plane-talking","tag-south-africa"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/882217","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/92"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=882217"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/882217\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":882232,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/882217\/revisions\/882232"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/856256"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=882217"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=882217"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=882217"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}