Photo: Nine News.

For someone like myself who mistreats this travel document with disrespect resulting in more than a few heated exchanges with airline and immigration staff alike, a successful trial of the Known Traveller Digital Identity platform that allows passengers to fly internationally using only their phone will hopefully put an end to carrying the damn things.

"The new project, dubbed the Known Traveller Digital Identity platform, was launched at Montreal airport on Wednesday, enabling select passengers to fly between the Netherlands and Canada with their mobile phones, instead of passports."

"Air Canada and KLM flights to and from Montréal-Trudeau International Airport, Toronto Pearson Airport and Amsterdam Airport Schiphol are participating in the trial. "

"How it works is passengers will be able to use their mobile phone with an encrypted information file to replace the chip in a passport. This encrypted file will be accessed at airport security and border control, alongside the usual facial recognition and fingerprints."

"Travellers add their own documents to the digital passport to prove their identity, like university degrees and bank statements. Visa applications can also be added. "

https://travel.nine.com.au/latest/canad ... 815157ed71

But when will passports be a thing of the past, and we can all go where we want to on our planet?

I hope not, we are only just getting our blue passports back!

In all seriousness, I’m not sure it will catch on, and it just puts even more importance on your phone.

I could see a day where we can just use an ID card type thing and all travel info will be stored on there, without having to worry about physical visas/stamps.

Username Taken wrote: ↑Fri Jun 28, 2019 10:04 pm

cautious colin wrote: ↑Fri Jun 28, 2019 8:43 pm
I could see a day where we can just use an ID card type thing and all travel info will be stored on there, without having to worry about physical visas/stamps.

Why not just go with a microscopic computer chip inserted immediately after birth?

I did consider writing that but I am not sure how I would feel about it. Having something that technically belongs to the government implanted under your skin doesn’t sound ideal, and they would want to make it traceable.

Would need to be implemented worldwide too which would be a long way off.