Which countries piloted Digital Travel Credentials (DTCs) with ICAO in 2023–2025?
Executive summary
Between 2023 and 2025 a small but growing set of live pilots and proofs‑of‑concept using ICAO’s Digital Travel Credential (DTC) specifications were publicly reported, with Aruba, the Netherlands, Finland, Croatia, Hong Kong and Japan among the named participants in industry and government-backed trials; reporting suggests these were early, discrete pilots rather than a global rollout and that sources are often industry partners or national agencies [1] [2] [3] [4] [5]. The record assembled from ICAO, vendors and aviation bodies indicates momentum—and vendor interest—but does not constitute an exhaustive ICAO‑sanctioned roster of every state pilot during 2023–2025 [6] [7].
1. Aruba: the often‑cited “first” DTC pilot in 2023
Industry accounts from SITA and partners describe what they call the world’s first deployment of a DTC based on ICAO’s initial standard in March 2023 in Aruba, where passengers derived DTCs from passports and used them for pre‑approval and border crossing with face biometrics at the arrival gate [1]. Those reports are vendor‑sourced and frame Aruba as a live-use case demonstrating an ICAO‑aligned DTC in an operational environment rather than a full national issuance program [1].
2. The Netherlands: coordinated government, airline and vendor pilots
Dutch government and industry reporting identifies the Netherlands as a focal point for ICAO‑aligned pilots, with a project involving the Ministry of the Interior, Royal Netherlands Marechaussee (KMar), RvIG, Schiphol, KLM and IDEMIA funded by the European Commission and frequently referenced in 2023 pilots and subsequent analyses [2] [3]. Multiple commentators and Uniting Aviation trace an ICAO DTC‑1 pilot or similar Netherlands trials that let passengers create credentials in a mobile app and use them for boarding and border checks [8] [6].
3. Finland and Croatia: EU external border testing in 2023
EU documents and national statements indicate Finland and Croatia tested DTC use at external border crossings as part of a DTC pilot project reported in early 2023, an experiment explicitly cited in European Commission proposals and regulatory texts discussing DTC pilots [4]. These references come from government sources and EU preparatory documents and present the trials as part of broader EU exploration of digital identity for border management [4].
4. Hong Kong and Japan: IATA/industry PoCs that used ICAO principles
IATA reported proofs‑of‑concept in late October (21–22 October) that involved Cathay Pacific, Hong Kong International Airport and Narita International Airport and several industry technology partners, framing those trials as steps toward ICAO‑aligned digital travel experiences and airport‑side implementations in 2024 [5]. Those PoCs focused on airport processes and airline workflows rather than sovereign issuance of passport‑backed DTCs, illustrating how airline and airport pilots often accompany government trials [5].
5. What counts as an “ICAO pilot” and the role of vendors
The published record mixes vendor and airline press releases, national government briefings and ICAO technical reports, and these sources use different language—“deployment,” “pilot,” “PoC,” and “DTC‑1 pilot”—which complicates a clean list of ICAO‑sanctioned state pilots; industry vendors (SITA, Entrust, IDEMIA) prominently promote specific country projects, creating both demonstration momentum and potential promotional bias [1] [2] [9]. ICAO itself has published technical reports and guidance on DTCs and hosted TRIP activities to capture lessons learned, but its public material through 2025 documents pilots and guidance rather than a comprehensive catalogue of participating states [7] [6].
6. Gaps, scale‑up and evolving initiatives through 2025
By late 2024–2025 reporting shows pilots expanding into larger industry programs—such as IATA’s Aptitude/ DTC work packages and broader European regulatory pushes toward digital identity wallets—signaling a transition from isolated pilots to coordinated trials though not yet universal rollout; however, the publicly available sources do not provide a single ICAO‑endorsed list of every country that ran DTC pilots in 2023–2025, so the available named participants (Aruba, Netherlands, Finland, Croatia, Hong Kong, Japan) are best treated as documented examples rather than an exhaustive roster [10] [5] [4] [1] [2].