Accordingly, the Civil Aviation Authority of Vietnam said it has sent a document to Department C06 (Ministry of Public Security), requesting guidance for aviation businesses on the use of level 2 electronic identification accounts for air travel.

The Civil Aviation Authority of Vietnam proposed to pilot the use of level 2 electronic identification accounts at airports from June 1 to August 1, 2023.

In its response, Department C06 said that aviation agencies and units connect to the Ministry of Public Security's electronic identification system according to the process/procedure prescribed in Decree 59/2022/ND-CP. The agencies and units then coordinate with C06 to provide electronic authentication services to adjust the corresponding software and perform authentication according to regulations.

This guide is to carry out the steps to check the correctness/incorrectness of the level 2 electronic identification account of air passengers (replacing citizen identification) by electronically authenticating the account according to the prescribed procedures and processes. Therefore, the Civil Aviation Authority of Vietnam has implemented the work according to the guided steps.

On April 17, the Ministry of Transport issued a document requesting the Civil Aviation Authority of Vietnam to direct civil aviation agencies and units to implement the instructions in Document No. 1101/BCA-QLHC dated April 11, 2023 of the Ministry of Public Security.

Specifically, when an electronic identity subject uses a level 2 electronic identity account in electronic activities and transactions, it is equivalent to presenting papers and documents to prove that the information has been integrated into the electronic identity account. To facilitate the identification and ensure the accuracy of the VNeID application and people's information on this application, the Ministry of Public Security has updated additional features to help citizens when performing administrative procedures.

According to this document, to ensure accuracy when citizens use level 2 electronic identification accounts in electronic activities and transactions to replace papers and documents integrated into the electronic identification account on the VNeID application, the Ministry of Public Security announced that it has updated the feature to check information and documents integrated on the application when performing administrative procedures.

Civil servants handling administrative procedures use the level 2 personal identification account installed on their phones to scan the QR code on the citizen's electronic identification account to determine the level of trust of the citizen's level 2 electronic identification account.

"However, procedures for air passengers are not administrative procedures and the checking of air travel documents (or checking of level 2 electronic identification accounts) is done with the naked eye," informed the leader of the Civil Aviation Authority of Vietnam.

According to the Civil Aviation Authority of Vietnam, if applying the measure of checking the correctness/incorrectness of level 2 electronic identification accounts, there will be some difficulties.

Specifically, this solution requires the use of personal assets (smartphones) and level 2 electronic identification accounts of airline staff. Meanwhile, the smartphones of airline staff used for inspection do not have any technical standards according to the provisions of Decree No. 59/2022/ND-CP.

To meet the interests of passengers, comply with legal regulations, and improve the quality of aviation services, according to the Civil Aviation Authority of Vietnam, there must be the most suitable plan to implement the use of level 2 electronic identification accounts for air passengers.

From here, the Civil Aviation Authority of Vietnam proposes to pilot the acceptance of the use of level 2 electronic identification accounts for passengers checking in for flights, evaluate the effectiveness after the pilot; report to the Ministry of Transport on difficulties in implementing the regulations in Decree No. 59/2022/ND-CP regulating electronic identification and authentication after the pilot.

The pilot will be conducted simultaneously at airports from June 1, 2023 to August 1, 2023, for domestic flights. Level 2 electronic identification accounts will be accepted for passengers checking in for flights instead of citizen identification cards.

When passengers use their level 2 electronic identification account to board a plane, check-in staff and aviation security staff visually check the passenger's level 2 electronic identification account.

In some special cases such as passengers showing signs of abnormality, the method of checking the authenticity/falsehood of citizens' electronic identification accounts as instructed in Document No. 1101/BCA-QLHC will be combined by using the level 2 personal identification account installed on the airline staff's phone, scanning the QR code on the passenger's electronic identification account to determine the reliability of the passenger's level 2 electronic identification account.

In particular, this pilot is only for voluntary passengers, and airline staff participating in the pilot voluntarily use their phones and level 2 electronic identification accounts for the pilot.

In addition, airline staff participating in the pilot pledge not to use passenger information for illegal purposes.

In the long term, the Civil Aviation Authority of Vietnam proposes to deploy a level 2 personal electronic identification account authentication application for passengers when checking in for flights combined with passenger biometric authentication. This task is being actively implemented by the Civil Aviation Authority of Vietnam and aviation agencies and units.

News and photos: VNA