The change could mean that passengers will be able to upload their passports onto their phone and pass through airports using face verification.
The International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO), the UN body, would be responsible for the policy change.
The privileges would be part of the ‘digital travel credential’ introduced by the ICAO, reports The Times.
Boarding passes and check-ins could be scrapped at airports
If the airport rule changes were to go through, it would mean passengers could download a ‘journey pass’ when booking flights, removing the need to check in and boarding passes.
Airports would introduce facial recognition scanners, followed by a bag drop, before moving on to security.
The ‘journey pass’ would update automatically if any changes are made to the booking, hoping to make travel easier.
The Times reports that without check-ins, airlines will be told of passengers ‘intention to fly when they arrive at the airport and their face is scanned.’
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Valérie Viale, director of product management at Amadeus, told The Times: “Many airline systems haven’t changed for more than 50 years because everything has to be consistent across the industry and interoperable.
“The last upgrade of great scale was the adoption of e-ticketing in the early 2000s. The industry has now decided it’s time to upgrade to modern systems that are more like what Amazon would use.”
If the plans were to go through, it would require physical infrastructure at airports to allow for upgraded facial recognition technology, as well as the ability to read a passport from a phone.
