22 May 2020: In the COVID-19 phase when social distancing is the new normal and no-touch will be the new policy, SITA has stepped up to develop a permanent digital identity for air travel. This identity will be accepted by governments, airlines, airports globally ensuring privacy and protection of the user’s digital identity.
The Smart Path technology deployed by SITA at airports successfully streamlines the complete departure process though the use of a single biometric token. At every step of the journey the passenger’s face will be the passport right from check-in to boarding.
Gustavo Pina, Director of the SITA Lab said, “We expect in the coming years that the development of a universally accepted digital identity will replace the traditional passport. This will allow travel across borders with any airline or airport while ensuring that you, as the passenger, remain in full control of your identity while providing actionable, trusted data only to appropriate parties such as border agencies.”
Besides this, SITA has also become a Premium Donor of the Sovrin Foundation. It is an international non-profit organization focused on the advancement of self-sovereign digital identity. Its main aim is to transform the current broken online identity system which is open to misuse and fraud. The self-sovereign identities can be useful in various other operations like to lower financial transaction costs, protect people’s personal information, limit opportunity for cybercrime, and simplify identity challenges in a variety of fields including travel, healthcare, banking, IoT and voter fraud.