Hands Free Happiness

Out on the road again (and again, and again)Dateline: Woking, 22nd March 2024.Whether being a road warrior is something to boast about or a tragic testament to a life wasted in airports I couldn’t say, but I suppose I am one. And as a road warrior who spends a lot of time thinking about digital identity, I am particularly interested in the complex value chain around travel. Now that the International Air Transport Association (IATA) has successfully tested the first fully integrated digital identity and verifiable credential (VC) journey from London Heathrow (LHR) to Rome Fiumicino (FCO) with British Airways, it looks as if my dreams of seamless travel are a step closer to reality.ShareDigital JourneysIATA has also been working on digital identity standards based on W3C Verifiable Credentials (VC) and decentralised digital identity designed to be interoperable between different stakeholders, such as airlines, travel agents, airports and governments. They have already released preliminary specifications for the W3C VC schema for passport, visa, and the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) Digital Travel Authorisation (DTA) for industry testing.Subscribe nowThe LHR-FCO passenger shared their loyalty data (stored as a verifiable credential in their smart phone’s digital wallet) with a travel agent which enabled airlines using the appropriate interfaces to make offers through the travel agent channel. I can’t remember the last time I used a travel agent, but clearly many people still do. Anyway, once the customer had chosen the offer and purchased, no more Passenger Name Records (PNR), e-tickets or miscellaneous documents were needed because…Hands Free Happiness