The International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) has endorsed specifications for phase one of what it calls “Digital Travel Credentials” (DTC), which aim to allow document-free travel between participating countries, according to ICAO’s news publication “Uniting Aviation”. DTC will allow travelers to extract their information from their physical passport and securely store it inside a digital container, such as a smartphone. Eventually, ICAO hopes to completely remove the need for physical passports. As of June 2017, 120 countries around the world were using biometric passports (ePassports), which use microchip technology containing biometric information to authenticate the identity of a passport holder. Although ePassports have considerably trimmed wait times in airports and increased security, the employment of DTC could also allow travelers to apply for visas online and facilitate contactless land border crossing.

Source: Egypt Independent November 25, 2020 10:07 UTC