IATA Survey Records More Airport Biometric Use
Airport journeys involving biometrics were reported by 58% of respondents in the International Air Transport Association’s 2026 Global Passenger Survey, up from 50% in its 2025 survey. The 2026 figure covers respondents’ experiences during the 12 months before the survey.
IATA published the results on October 28, 2026. According to the association, more than 10,000 responses were collected across more than 200 countries, covering travel-planning tools, airport biometrics and interest in digital passports.
On sharing biometric data, IATA said 78% expressed willingness on the condition that they would no longer need to present passports or boarding passes at airport checkpoints. That percentage measures a conditional preference, rather than participation in biometric processing.
Digital passports were also addressed through questions about specific services. For online check-in, 84% expressed interest in replacing a physical passport with a digital version, according to IATA. Separately, 82% were interested in providing an airline with a digital passport after making a booking to obtain services including visa information. Both findings concern stated interest.
For travel planning, IATA put reported use of artificial intelligence at 49% of respondents. Among the most commonly reported applications, flight searches for a destination already selected accounted for 21%, while searches for the cheapest flights accounted for 19%. Looking for destination ideas was reported by 17%.
* This article is based on publicly available information at the time of writing.