Digital Travel Credentials for Airlines – Reduce Inadmissible Travelers

Inadmissible travelers – known as INADs – are passengers denied entry by a government on their arrival in a country. They represent less than 1% of passengers carried, but they’re a big – and expensive – headache for airlines. It’s a global issue, with almost all countries affected. For some, including the USA, the UK, Germany and Mexico, it’s a particularly pressing issue – and of course for the airlines that fly to those countries, too.

There are several reasons why governments may classify travelers as INADs, including:

• Criminal records or national security threats.
• Invalid documentation (usually the lack of a valid passport, visa or resident’s card).
• Missing documentation (documents are sometimes deliberately disposed of, when travelers are seeking asylum, for example).
• Fake or forged documents.
• Visa overstays.
• Insufficient funds.
• Missing or incorrect health documentation (this was a frequent cause of INADs during theCOVID-19 pandemic).

Governments make it the airline’s responsibility to ensure that all passengers have valid travel documents and visas before boarding the flight. They also need airlines to cooperate on any evolving threats or security issues. As well as this, governments expect airlines to ensure that passenger data is kept safe and managed in line with local and international legislation concerning data privacy.

All of this is complex for airlines to manage. And expensive, too. Most countries impose severe penalties on airlines that carry INADs. Averages range from US$ 1,000 to 2,500 per INAD, but can rise as high as US$ 10,000 per INAD in some cases. As well as fines, airlines also have to cover any associated INAD costs. These include food and lodging, but also medical expenses, detention costs, translation services, security outlays and more. They also lose revenue, as they normally have to return INADs to their original departure point.

For major carriers, cumulative INAD expenses today run into millions of dollars annually. Most airlines will try and recoup part or all of these expenses from INADs, but this is very often unsuccessful.

It’s not just a financial problem, however. INADs do nothing for an airline’s reputation, and are disastrous in terms of the passenger experience.

But the manual checks in place today, and which airlines have to carry out on all passengers, are inefficient, inaccurate and labor-intensive. Even well-trained staff and so-called super-recognizers make mistakes.

So what’s to be done?

We need to find ways of streamlining and automating identity checks, so that we can expedite passenger processing and enhance operational efficiency.

Many countries, with SITA’s help, have already taken steps in the right direction, with passengers going through pre-clearance, before even leaving their departure country. Electronic travel authorizations (ETAs) and eVisas also do a great deal to help. Digital identity, with both biographic and biometric information, shared with travelers’ consent, well in advance of arrival, is the future.

Digital travel credentials (DTCs) make all the difference – and our proven and trusted digital travel solution, based on international standards (ICAO, IATA), is easy to deploy. In Aruba, we successfully demonstrated that a government can integrate an ICAO DTC into their pre-clearance process within days, test within weeks, and deploy within months. Large, complex, and costly multi-year projects are no longer required.

It's time to take the next step, and to rapidly reduce the number of INADs you carry. When you adopt SITA Digital Travel, specifically tailored for airlines, you dramatically improve your performance. And you avoid most of the penalties imposed on you by governments for non-compliance with identity verification regulations. With SITA Digital Travel, you can be sure that every passenger boarding your aircraft has been duly approved to travel to their destination. With automated verification based on biometrics, the ICAO Public Key Directory, and cryptography.

So why not find out more – and do something today about that big and expensive headache being caused by inadmissible travelers?