Finland Takes the Lead in Pioneering Digital Passports to Simplify Travel

Passengers will no longer find the need to carry traditional paper travel documents in the foreseeable future if the initial trial proves to be successful.

Finland has now emerged as the global trailblazer in piloting innovative digital travel credentials aimed at streamlining, facilitating, and safeguarding international travel.

On August 28, Finland embarked on this groundbreaking endeavor in collaboration with Finnair, the Finnish police, and the airport operator Finavia. The project, overseen by the Finnish Border Guard, is slated to extend until February 2024, with its primary implementation taking place at the Helsinki Airport border control.

In a pioneering move, Finland has become the first nation globally to initiate trials of digital travel documents. Presently, this digital passport option is exclusively accessible to Finnair passengers commuting between Finland and London, Manchester, or Edinburgh.

The Digital Travel Credential (DTC) represents a digital emulation of the conventional physical passport, conveniently storable on a mobile device. The International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), currently in the process of devising a global framework for digital travel documents, has provided guidelines for this initiative.

Eligibility for participation in this trial is restricted to Finnish citizens traveling between Finland and the UK on Finnair flights. Interested individuals are required to download the FIN DTC Pilot digital travel document application, undergo registration with the police, and furnish their information to the Finnish Border Guard within a window of four to 36 hours before their UK-bound flight.

At Helsinki Airport, travelers can employ their digital passport to confirm their identity by having their photograph taken and matched with the stored data. Nevertheless, participants are still mandated to carry their physical passports and submit them for scanning at the border control checkpoints in both Finland and the UK.

The successful implementation of this pilot project could potentially obviate the necessity for passengers to carry traditional travel documents in the future.

The digital passport offers several advantages to travelers, including reduced waiting times and shorter queues during border control procedures. Additionally, it can enhance privacy and security while mitigating the risk of document or identity fraud.

Notably, this trial is part of a larger high-tech initiative spearheaded by the European Union (EU). The European Commission had approached Finland last year, inquiring about its interest in participating in this pilot project, which is financed with €2.1 million (approximately Rs 21 crore) by the European Commission. Croatia is poised to initiate a similar trial at Zagreb Airport later this year.

Christoph Wolff, the Head of Mobility at the World Economic Forum, commented,

"By 2030, international air arrivals are expected to reach 1.8 billion passengers, up 50 per cent from 2016. Under today’s systems, airports cannot keep up with this growth."

Digital passports are already in use in more than 100 countries, including India, where e-passports boast chip-enabled biometric identification for enhanced security and identity verification.

It's worth noting the endeavors of other countries concerning the digitalization of passports:

• Poland, South Korea, the United States, and the United Kingdom are actively pursuing digital passport projects akin to Finland's.
• Ukraine achieved a landmark by granting digital passports the same legal status as physical ones in 2021.
• Singapore introduced HealthCerts in February 2021, a digital health passport enabling travelers to securely store and present their Covid-19 test results and vaccination records.

Furthermore, countries such as China, Estonia, and Israel have also rolled out digital vaccine passports.

Source: deccanherald.com