Editorial

Davos: Airline industry needs to up its game when it comes to ID

Need for “cross-entity collaboration” in aviation to deliver digital innovation in passenger identity management, delegates hear

Posted 30 January 2020 by Gary Flood


The airline sector needs to deal better with passenger identity management, the head of electronic identity management solutions provider Vision-Box, reminded delegates at last week’s Davos meeting in Switzerland.

The exec in question was Richard Camman, the company’s VP Business Development, a participant in a panel discussion organised by Accenture at the conference on Towards a More Useful, Safe and Valuable Identity.

He told delegates that by 2030, global travel will reach 1.8 billion international arrivals per year – a 50% increase from today that will put pressure on present-day aviation, travel and tourism infrastructures, as well as increasing security concerns.

As a result, Camman stressed, there is real necessity for what he dubbed “cross-entity collaboration” to seek digital innovation in passenger Identity Management.

Vision-Box’s work at Rome Airport

And that’s something his company is dying to do, he suggested: “Sharing best practice and our vision of how biometrics can responsibly simplify the lives of billions of people is pivotal towards a sustainable digital society.”

Camman went on to highlight some of his team’s experiences on the World Economic Forum’s Known Traveler Digital Identity (KTDI) framework that was developed in partnership with key public and private stakeholders between Canada and the Netherlands. 

Vision-Box’s input to the panel are summarised in a recent story in International Aviation Review.

Accenture is lead sponsor at next month’s Think Digital Identity For Government 2020, where many of the ideas expressed at Davos will likely be further debated.