Earlier this year, the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) shared plans to get rid of traditional boarding passes and airport check-in by 2028. Instead, passengers would carry a Digital Travel Credential — basically a high-security digital version of your passport stored on your phone. When you get to the airport, you'd just walk through facial recognition checkpoints, with all the relevant flight details updating automatically on your device.
It’s already being tested in places like the Netherlands and Canada. And according to The Guardian, this would mean no more printing boarding passes at home, no more fumbling for documents at the gate, and no need to scan anything at all.
The big question, though, is obvious: If passengers can go paperless, why are pilots still carrying folders full of paper?
Why aren't pilot licences digital yet?
It’s not that digital pilot licences don’t exist — they do, sort of. In fact, back in 2023, ICAO launched a tool for states to verify Electronic Personnel Licences (EPLs) both online and offline. The idea was to make it easier for authorities to confirm a pilot’s credentials without needing a physical licence.
A few countries have started experimenting. India, for example, now issues e-licences to its pilots through a secure government portal, and China is rolling out its own version too (see ICAO’s ANC Talk on China’s EPL project).
So why hasn’t this caught on more widely? Well, bureaucracy, mostly.
The red tape is real
Even though the tech is there, aviation is a slow-moving industry when it comes to regulatory change. Getting dozens of countries and their aviation authorities to agree on what a digital licence should look like — and how it should be issued and verified is a massive task.
There’s also the legal side. In many places, the law still requires a physical licence to be carried and presented when requested by authorities. Until the rules change, pilots are stuck printing out every rating, endorsement, and medical certificate often in triplicate.
And then there’s trust. Aviation authorities tend to be cautious (and for good reason). A digital pilot licence isn’t just a convenience it has to be totally secure, impossible to fake, and accessible even if your device is lost or offline.
Still, there are real benefits
Despite all that, there’s a growing argument for moving pilot credentials online. Here’s why it makes sense:
- Instant access. No more worrying if you left your licence at home. It’s always with you.
- Better verification. Airlines and recruiters could confirm your details in seconds , no scanning, no emailing PDFs.
- Less admin. Pilots wouldn’t need to carry a binder of certificates when changing airlines or renewing type ratings.
- Environmentally friendly. Less paper, less waste.
- It just fits. Pilots are already logging hours digitally. Digital licences are the natural next step.
Plus, with boarding passes disappearing, passengers will soon be more high-tech at the airport than the flight crew. That feels... backwards.
What would it actually look like?
The dream version is simple: a verified app, likely issued by your national aviation authority or licence issuer, that stores your pilot certificate, ratings, medicals, and recent flight history. That data could be backed up in a secure cloud, accessible with biometric ID, and instantly shareable with an airline, employer, or inspector.
In some ways, it would work similarly to how ICAO’s Digital Travel Credential does for passengers , all your official documents, rolled into one secure, updatable digital identity.
But right now, most pilots are still stuck in a hybrid world. You might use a digital logbook, but you’re printing it off for interviews. You’ve scanned your licence, but you still carry a plastic card. You're emailing attachments, then bringing hard copies “just in case.”
So... would you go fully paperless?
A lot of pilots say yes, with conditions. As long as it’s recognised across borders, backed by strong security, and supported by your licensing authority, there’s no reason it couldn’t work. Others aren’t quite ready to trust that an app won’t crash during a ramp check.
Until the regulators catch up, the paper will stick around. But if ICAO’s push for digital travel credentials succeeds, there’s a good chance pilot licensing will follow.
Change is coming , just maybe not as fast as we’d like. So In the meantime, if you're still printing your logbook or prepping documents for interviews, make sure they look sharp.
Aileron's digital logbook printing service is built for exactly this, easy upload, clean formatting, and professional print quality. Because even in a paperless world, presentation still matters.