AI, digital IDs to dominate air travel by 2030, says report

Air travelers can expect to see an increased emphasis on artificial intelligence and “digital identity management” at airports, says a new report by think tank Oliver Wyman Forum. 

According to the report on airport travel trends, travel documents like passports and boarding passes in 2030 will have been fully replaced by AI-powered biometric technology which scans facial features to match with a digital identity. This information will be shared between governments to make air travel more “seamless” for passengers.

“Standardization of immigration and customs processes will be needed, including the sharing of facial recognition and passport data across international authorities. This will enable the integration of biometrics and AI technologies,” says the report.

Even now, in international airports like those in Dubai, Israel and Los Angeles, biometric scanners use facial recognition technology to analyze travelers’ facial features, which are then matched against a database of faces linked to passports. 

Dutch freedom activist Eva Vlaardingerbroek recently discovered during her travels that biometric scans at Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) are mandatory and have replaced passports.

“Just had to go through ‘facial recognition boarding’ at LAX airport, meaning they scan your face and use your biometric data to identify you instead of checking your passport/boarding pass,” she tweeted Thursday. “I tried to refuse, but was immediately told by the gate agent that it was obligatory and that they wouldn’t allow me to board the plane if I didn’t comply. 

“Yet another dystopian nightmare that has become reality.”

Airports in other cities like Amsterdam, Vlaardingerbroek notes, still allow travelers to opt out of biometric scanning. But at LAX and other airports like Israel’s Ben Gurion International, officials will only check passports if the scan was unable to identify a match.

On its website, the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) says that the biometric scanning program, referred to as the Traveler Verification Service, is “an optional process for passengers, who may opt-out of the process at any time and instead choose the standard identity verification by a Transportation Security Officer (TSO).”

The Traveler Verification Service is run by US Customs and Border Patrol Protection (CBP), which rolled out the system in September 2020 under the pretext of COVID-19.

“Travelers are a lot more cognizant about what they touch and who they’ve provided their travel documents or boarding pass to,” said LAX CBP Area Port Director LaFonda Sutton-Burke. “There are hygienic benefits to reducing traveler contact points, and biometric information helps ensure an efficient, safe and secure travel experience.”

But while Vlaardingerbroek and others may be uncomfortable with mandatory facial scanning, AI and digital identities, the Oliver Wyman Forum claims that “45% of air travel passengers saying they are ready to drop paper passports for digital identities.”

According to a Pew survey, most Americans are in favor of law enforcement using facial recognition and think police should set the standard for how the technology is used. About 47% think the government will go too far in regulating the technology, while 51% think it will not go far enough. 

Facial recognition systems at airports have received pushback from some lawmakers, however. Even Democrat Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-OR) and Marxist Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) expressed their concern about the TSA's program in February.

“Increasing biometric surveillance of Americans by the government represents a risk to civil liberties and privacy rights,” they wrote in a letter along with three other senators to TSA Administrator David Pekoske.

“We are concerned about the safety and security of Americans’ biometric data in the hands of authorized private corporations or unauthorized bad actors,” the letter continued. “As government agencies grow their database of identifying images, increasingly large databases will prove more and more enticing targets for hackers and cybercriminals.”

By 2040, predicts the Oliver Wyman Forum report, digital IDs will also include travelers’ health details.

“For passengers, touchless travel digital ID cards may replace paper passports by 2040, acting as a single source of truth that confirms the passenger’s identity, health details, passport details, past and current travel information, and visa details,” the report states. 

“This digital ID combined with biometric technology means passenger processing, including security clearance, could be a completely uninterrupted and touchless journey conducted at a walking pace.”

Unmanned aerial drones will also be “widely used” by 2040 for tasks as broad as security and will fly overhead “capturing images and videos”, though the report admits that this “could potentially pose a threat”.

By 2050, the report says air travel will be a utopian experience in which there are no more carbon emissions, “[t]he passenger processing experience could feel like a walk in the park”, and “there is a prospect of having an internationally recognized digital identity for all passengers by 2050.”

Other futuristic trends identified by the report include “aerotropolises”, where airports will be developed into mini cities that include cinemas, parks, hospitals and event arenas.

Another prediction is that the current pilot shortage will continue to impact air travel”

In particular, the pilot shortage is a long-standing trend that will continue to impact travel supply in the next decade, with an estimated 60,000 additional pilots needed globally by 2032, including 17,000 in North America and 17,500 in the Middle East.