Mobile: A Round Trip to Tomorrow. Part 1 | Hitit

After spending 2 and a half hours in the passport control line when departing from Heathrow airport one Monday night, I was curious about the average waiting time at the border and decided to research it. Unfortunately, I couldn’t find up to date global statistics on this subject, but instead many complaints about long airport lines popped up on my mobile screen. Luckily, I was on a business trip, not a vacation, as a crowded airport can easily kill a buzz after a beautiful get-away. I’m wondering if there anyone at all who is satisfied with the airport experience nowadays?

Sky-high expectations

It’s no secret that modern travellers have sky-high expectations. Almost a year ago, at the end of 2017, Skift reported that travel brands could not keep up with the travellers’ demands. For instance, mobile travel bookings were expected to exceed 40% but hardly reached this number by the end of the year.

However, despite the common misconception that web is the travellers' preference for travel-related activities, they do want to use apps for search and booking. A global study of almost 1,000 travellers showed that mobile won travellers’ hearts in check-in, boarding pass generation, flight search, ancillary purchases, discount search, and about to take over booking a flight. Well, no surprise as on average a person spends more than 3 hours per day looking at his/her mobile phone. A small correction, 3 phones… there are more than 23 billion internet-connected devices globally, divided by the world’s population, makes it around 3 devices for every single person.

The age of '’hyper - connectivity’’

Three hours per day, three devices per person, airliners should start using this ‘’hyper - connectivity’’ more efficiently by doing something to make a passengers journey from point A to point B as seamless as possible. And from a passenger’s perspective, points A and B are not Airport A and Airport B, but their couch at home and a beach at a holiday resort. Regardless of the airline or airport, or even mode of transportation, the one constant thing, that stays throughout the whole journey is a mobile phone. Two things actually-your face, also known as biometrics.

If we look at the current process, there is a lot of repetition centered around a passenger’s identity. You provide identity details when booking a flight, at the check-in counter, at passport control, at customs, at the boarding gate and at the passport control of your destination. As many as 6 times.

A passenger of tomorrow

According to IATA and their new initiative IATA One ID, ‘’a passenger of tomorrow’’ will have a Digital ID Token in their mobile device. The token will be created in two simple steps, step 1 - biometric face scanning via a ‘Selfie’. Step 2 - digital verification of the identification document. The best part - this can be done at any time, even before booking a flight.

In this case, the new process would look like this:

1) Provide your digital ID token during booking, personal details are automatically completed.

2) Arrive at the airport, biometric facial recognition cameras confirm your arrival.

3) Go to self-bag drop station and drop your bags, no check-in needed.

4) Walk through fast-track security, biometrics confirm “trusted traveller” status based on previous records and background checks.

5) Walk through automated customs gate, biometrics confirm - good to go.

6) Walk through automated boarding gate, biometrics confirm allowed on board.

7) After landing, walk through customs, biometrics confirm APIS is ok.

Sounds too good to be true, but rumour has it that this process can be implemented by the industry in a decade! Personally, I will definitely be following up on the IATA One ID initiative.

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