• SITA’s current technology plays a role in 95% of all passenger flights anywhere around the world.
• New system would be an “open-to-all trust network” involving key players in the worldwide air transport sector
• Focus on driving interoperability to ensure travellers’ digital identities are seamlessly recognised and trusted worldwide
• Improved operational efficiency and reduced complexity for all organisations and agencies – and a streamlined experience for travellers

One of the longest established enterprise data network operators in the world, Geneva-based SITA (the Société Internationale de Télécommunications Aéronautiques), is developing an “open-to-all trust network” that will underpin a secure digital identity system for the global travel sector.  

SITA, which specialises in providing IT and telecom services to the worldwide aviation sector, styles itself as “the global leader in air transport technology” and has some solid grounds for doing so. As the travel industry continues to evolve, SITA is to partner with the French multinational company IDEMIA Public Security, a global provider to governments and private enterprises of identity-related security services, including facial recognition and other biometric identification technologies, to “advance interoperability, trust, and data security through a globally recognised digital travel ecosystem (DTE).” 

The plan is to develop “an open-to-all trust network” involving “key players in the industry” to advance the way passengers travel around the world. Its primary focus is on driving interoperability across the travel sector, “ensuring that travellers’ digital identities are seamlessly recognised and trusted worldwide.”

It was 75 years ago that 11 far-sighted airlines (10 of which were European and one, TWA, was a US company), established SITA as an umbrella organisation to save costs by combining and sharing their comms networks. The 10 European airlines (often state-owned) were British European Airways Corporation (BEAC), British Overseas Airways Corporation (BOAC), British South American Airways (BSAA), KLM, Sabena, Swissair, TWA, Swedish AB Aerotransport, Danish Air Lines, Norwegian Air Lines and Air France. Today the only original members are KLM, and Air France, the others, including America’s Trans World Airlines either ceased flying (some by going bankrupt) or were amalgamated, dismembered, or merged with other companies. 

However, to this day, SITA remains 100% owned by the international airline industry. It has some 500 members, and serves 2,500 customers worldwide, a number, it says, that equates to about 90% of the world’s airline business. SITA technology has a role in 95% of all passenger flights anywhere in the world. And, when your airline routes your bag to São Paulo while you are flying to San Francisco, it’s SITA that finds it for you. 

Unless you are very wealthy, flying, for the great majority of people, has become an overcrowded, expensive, stressful and dispiriting experience, both on the ground and in the air, as passengers are subjected to multiple necessary but often unpleasant requirements and demands for various forms of identity and permissions from various agencies and organisations. Between them, SITA and IDEMIA Public Security hope to unblock bottlenecks by creating and maintaining a consistent system of trust and security across the entirety of the travel journey, from airport to airport, by constructing an identity management framework that is open, secure, and interoperable; one that ensures travellers’ digital identity is trusted globally, without the need for direct integrations between issuers and verifiers.

Towards a streamlined travel experience 

The proposed DTE will be decentralised to ensure that a traveller’s digital identity and other personal information will be fully under their own control thanks to SITA and IDEMIA’s ‘privacy-by-design’ approach, which is being developed in partnership with Indicio, the automated forecasting software company, headquartered in Seattle, Washington state, which specialises in decentralised identity technology, digital wallet and verifiable credential solutions that will help enable the secure global sharing of passengers’ digital credentials.

Such an approach ensures that travellers are sharing their information only with their explicit consent. After that consent is given, it can securely be shared across various agencies ensuring that their digital identity has been verified and issued in real time. The SITA/IDEMIA collaboration should result in improved operational efficiency and reduced complexity for all parties involved, as a digital identity will be recognised and trusted across airports, borders and what SITA calls “travel touchpoints”. The end result should be a better travel experience for passengers, including faster processing at check-in and at emigration and immigration points, and it should reduce costs for airlines and government agencies. 

Commenting on the partnership to develop the DTE, Jeremy Springall, senior vice president of borders at SITA, said, “As the travel industry adopts a wide range of digital identity and biometric solutions, ensuring interoperability and trust is key across various sectors. With IDEMIA’s collaboration in the digital travel ecosystem, we’re enhancing the ability of stakeholders to trust a traveller’s digital identity across the entire travel journey. This collaboration is critical to advancing global standards for privacy, trust, and security, while enabling smoother operations and reducing costs.”

Tim Ferris, senior vice president of travel and transport at IDEMIA Public Security, added, “In a world where data privacy concerns are at the forefront, this approach of an interoperable Digital Travel Ecosystem provides a responsible, transparent solution for ensuring how passenger information is shared. With our shared mission to enhance the passenger experience without compromising security, IDEMIA is proud to partner with SITA. By integrating our technologies around common standards, we can drive global adoption of secured digital capability and biometric authentication, ensuring that passengers’ data remains secure while delivering a streamlined travel experience.”

IATA (the International Air Transport Association), of which 330 airlines are members and represent over 80% of global air traffic, forecasts that passenger volumes will double by 2040, to reach a staggering 8 billion annual flights, while Goode Intelligence predicts that, before then, some 1.27 billion people will be using digital identity for travel. Now the scalability and interoperability of the SITA/IDEMIA digital travel ecosystem will have to be conclusively proven for the system to progress to commercial use. 

It needs to be. With 8 billion flights a year on the horizon, SITA’s proposed system (or something like it) will have to be in place, and the sooner the better, to prevent airlines and airports almost grinding to a halt.

– Martyn Warwick, Editor in Chief, TelecomTV