By Werner Zahn, founder and CEO of DESKO (pictured).
Thirty-five years ago, identity verification at airports was a very different process. Trained staff visually inspected a physical passport, relying largely on their experience and expertise to establish whether the document and passenger were genuine.
Since then, document readers, self-service solutions, eGates and biometric systems have progressively automated identity verification, helping airports process passengers more efficiently while reducing friction.
But we are now entering another significant phase of this evolution. The next major shift will be from document-centric verification to identity-centric verification.
Instead of repeatedly presenting a physical document at different points in the journey, passengers will increasingly be able to establish their identity through trusted digital credentials, supported by biometric verification. This does not mean the physical passport will disappear overnight. In fact, I expect physical passports, digital identities and biometrics to coexist for many years. The important question for airports is how these different elements can work together.
The technology is only part of the solution
One of the mistakes I believe airports can make is focusing too heavily on individual technologies rather than the passenger journey as a whole.
Biometrics, self-service kiosks, eGates and document readers can each provide significant benefits. But installing sophisticated technology at individual touchpoints does not necessarily create a seamless experience. If those systems are not properly integrated, passengers can still encounter unnecessary stops, repeated identity checks or confusing processes.
The question should therefore not simply be which technology should we implement? It should be how should identity work across the entire passenger journey?
This is becoming increasingly important because there is no longer one standard passenger journey. Different travellers may have different documents, digital credentials, security requirements or access to trusted traveller programmes. Airports need infrastructure that can support these different journeys while maintaining the same high standards of security.
That means interoperability has to become part of the conversation from the beginning, rather than something considered after individual systems have already been selected.
Physical and digital identities will coexist
The transition towards digital identity should not be viewed as a straightforward replacement of the physical passport.
Over the next five to ten years, I expect physical passports and digital identities to coexist. Physical documents will remain an important foundation for establishing identity, while digital credentials can make subsequent verification much simpler.
Biometrics can increasingly act as the secure link between a passenger and their verified identity. A traveller could establish their identity using a physical passport or trusted digital credential and, once that initial verification has taken place, use facial recognition to move through subsequent stages of the journey without repeatedly presenting the same document.
We are already seeing elements of this approach today. Automated border control combines document verification with biometric identification to allow passengers to complete parts of the process themselves.
The direction of travel is therefore clear, but airports need to avoid thinking in terms of one technology replacing another. The future will be about making different forms of identity work together.
Build for the airport of tomorrow, not just today
Another challenge is that airports are making infrastructure decisions in an environment where technology, regulations and passenger expectations are changing rapidly.
A system that meets today’s requirements may need to support very different processes several years from now. The introduction of new regulatory requirements is one example of how quickly these needs can change.
The EU Entry/Exit System demonstrates this particularly well. The introduction of new requirements around the capture of personal and biometric data means airports and border authorities need infrastructure capable of supporting new processes and technologies.This is why flexibility needs to be considered alongside functionality when airports make technology investments.
The objective shouldn’t necessarily be to predict exactly what the passenger journey will look like in ten years. Instead, airports should build systems that can adapt as requirements change.
Reliability matters just as much as innovation
There is naturally a lot of excitement around what new technology can do for the passenger journey. But airports are critical infrastructure, and technology has to work in the real world.
Contactless identification and automation can make journeys more comfortable and efficient. But when a technological system breaks down, the impact can be immediate: queues develop, staff have to intervene and passengers experience uncertainty and frustration.
This is particularly important for identity verification because there is very little room for error.
A successful system needs to be reliable, intuitive for passengers and capable of handling situations where the automated process doesn’t work as expected. Self-service should not simply transfer responsibility from airport employees to passengers; it should make the process genuinely easier for both.
This is also why I believe passenger experience and security should not be treated as opposing objectives. The right technology can support both.
What should airports be considering for the future?
As airports consider their next generation of identity infrastructure, the focus should be on how different technologies will work together across the passenger journey.
Are we thinking about the journey as a whole, rather than treating individual technologies as isolated touchpoints? Can physical and digital identities coexist as digital credentials become more widespread, while physical documents continue to play an important role?
Airports also need to consider whether the infrastructure they invest in today will be flexible enough to accommodate future changes in technology, regulation and passenger expectations. That means looking beyond whether a particular solution meets today’s requirements and asking whether different systems can work together as part of a genuinely connected identity ecosystem.
Ultimately, the technology also needs to work for the passenger as well as the operator. A technically sophisticated solution will only deliver its intended benefits if passengers can use it easily, intuitively and with confidence.
The future is identity-centric
Airport identity verification has come a long way from the manual inspection of physical documents. The next stage of that evolution will be less about the individual technologies being introduced and more about how effectively they connect.
Physical passports will continue to play an important role. Digital identities will become increasingly established. Biometrics will increasingly connect passengers with their verified identity. But none of these developments should be considered in isolation.
The airports that are best prepared for the future will be those that build flexible identity infrastructure around the passenger journey, rather than building the passenger journey around individual technologies.
For me, that is the real opportunity. The future of airport identity isn’t about choosing between physical documents, digital IDs or biometrics. It is about making them work together to create a journey that is secure, reliable and, above all, seamless for the passenger.
Image: DESKO GmbH
