France’s national digital identity app will be accepted as a valid boarding credential at all domestic airports starting this summer, the country’s civil aviation authority has confirmed, marking the most significant expansion yet of the platform’s accepted use cases.
The Direction générale de l’Aviation civile confirmed to French media that passengers will be able to present their national identity card in digital form via smartphone at the boarding gate, eliminating the need to carry a physical card for domestic air travel. The extension covers all domestic airports in France.
France Identité, which launched in 2024 and is available on Android and iOS, allows citizens to store a digital version of their biometric national identity card, driver’s license, and vehicle registration certificate. The app now counts 3.6 million users, with over one million having added their driver’s license and more than 600,000 their vehicle registration.
The airport integration is limited to the boarding stage. Physical documents will continue to be required at security checkpoints and at passport control for non-Schengen flights, where international regulations govern acceptable identity credentials.
The expansion follows a trajectory of incremental acceptance across transit and government settings. The app was trialled by SNCF for passenger identity verification on trains, an earlier test of acceptance outside traditional law enforcement contexts. Since France began rolling out digital national identity cards through the app, the government has steadily broadened where the credential is recognized.
Those expansions have included adding document types as well as use cases. The government added digital vehicle registration documents to the app in mid-2025, and separately announced plans to integrate the national health card, signalling continued platform expansion.
The airport move is also notable in the context of broader European digital identity efforts. At the EU level, discussions are underway about enabling digital passports to facilitate international travel documentation, though domestic flight acceptance is governed by national rules and will proceed independently of any EU-level harmonization.
The French government has not published a specific technical standard for how airline ground staff and gate agents will authenticate digital credentials, and deployment logistics will be a key factor in determining how smoothly the expansion proceeds when summer 2026 arrives.
Sources: VisasNews
–
By Ali Nassar-Smith
