Traveler ID: How contactless technology has already simplified the journeys of 3 million travelers

December 15, 2021

3 min read

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François Blanc

Intrapreneur - Amadeus Innovation

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Passengers want their travel experience to be as safe and convenient as possible. And when it comes to the airport, they expect their journey to be smooth and with minimal queuing time.

However, since COVID-19, the need for health document checks has become a prerequisite for travel everywhere. This has obliged airlines and airports to add manual verification process at check-in and boarding at the airport, impeding the self-service check-in and biometric boarding available before.

In response to this need, Amadeus quickly added capabilities to its pre-existing identification solutionTraveler ID , and launched these to market less than a year ago, allowing airlines to process passengers’ health documentation smoothly in light of the new requirements.

Ensuring a smooth process to check health documentation

Traveler ID for Safe Travel enables airlines to collect and verify health requirements from travelers in an automated way. When a traveler checks-in online, they are asked to upload their COVID-19 document (test or vaccine result) so the airline can verify the documents before they arrive at the airport.

Not only is Traveler ID able to verify the health documentation, but the technology is embedded in the airline’s existing processes and channels, becoming completely seamless for the traveler. This means that travelers don’t need to open another app or window to verify their documents, they do it during the usual check-in process, without leaving the airline website or app.

Another benefit is that Traveler ID is fully interoperable. It’s integrated with other Digital Health Passes such asIBM Digital Health Pass and it’s capable to verify international standard documentation such as theEU Digital COVID Certificate . Basically, Traveler ID can integrate with many industry players and with multiple standards, while being able to process health documents in any format (travelers can scan a QR code, upload a digital file and even scan paper documents).

3 million documents checked and one health document verified every two seconds

In less than one year, the solution has been used by over 3 million passengers across 20 airlines that have signed up for Traveler ID. One health document is verified every two seconds, and by the end of the year, we estimate that the solution will be used by close to four million passengers.

This rapid adoption by travelers isn’t surprising when seen in light ofthe Rebuild Travel survey that we commissioned in October 2021 . This survey found that travelers are keen to use digital methods to travel and 93% of travelers would be willing to provide personal data for the effective use of digital health passports or certificates to avoid queuing at the airport.

Looking ahead

Our ambition is that checking COVID-19 documentation is going to be only one aspect of what Traveler ID can do. The objective from day one has been to offer an interoperable platform to verify any type of documentation required to travel (such as passports, visas, driving licenses and more). It aims to be the go-to-solution for airlines to save both airline staff and passenger time, remove stress at the airport and improve satisfaction.

In the future, Traveler ID will feature contactless document verification across the industry, be it hotel, airport, car rental – and may go beyond just travel.

Watch this space for more!

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