The German Bundestag has approved new legislation enabling digital passenger processing at German airports, making the experience faster, simpler, and more secure, while keeping it entirely voluntary for every traveller.
On Friday, 26 June 2026, the German Bundestag voted to pass a new law enabling digital passenger processing at German airports. The bill was approved by CDU/CSU, AfD, and SPD, while Bündnis 90/Die Grünen and Die Linke voted against it. It passed in the amended version recommended by the Transport Committee (Verkehrsausschuss). The law enters into force the day after its publication in the Federal Gazette.
The legislation, officially titled the Law Enabling Digital Passenger Processing(Gesetz zur Ermöglichung der digitalen Fluggastabfertigung), amends five existing German laws: the Aviation Act (Luftverkehrsgesetz), the Passport Act (Passgesetz), the National Identity Card Act (Personalausweisgesetz), the Residence Act (Aufenthaltsgesetz), and the Freedom of Movement Act/EU (Freizügigkeitsgesetz/EU).
Five separate laws needed changing because each governs a different category of travel document, and airlines needed legal permission under each one to read chip data. The Passport Act and National Identity Card Act cover German citizens. The Residence Act and Freedom of Movement Act/EU cover non-German nationals and EU citizens, so the digital system is built to work for everyone, regardless of which documents they carry.
The term Fluggastabfertigung refers to the full passenger handling process, from check-in through to document verification before boarding. Specifically, the law covers three checkpoints: check-in, baggage drop, and the boarding gate. Until now, passengers have had to present physical travel documents at each of these points separately. Under the new law, these steps can take place digitally.
The process becomes faster and simpler: The government's stated goal is to considerably simplify and speed up airport procedures. Rather than handling physical documents at each stage, travellers move through the process digitally. The government estimates around 80% of Germany's approximately 102 million annual boarding passengers will use the digital option, saving each roughly one minute per journey, totalling 1.088 million hours saved per year for citizens and €63 million in annual savings for the aviation industry.
You must actively consent and it is completely voluntary: Before any data is processed, passengers must give express consent. The law also explicitly guarantees that every passenger retains the right to choose traditional, in-person processing at any time. Airlines must continue offering this as a fully equivalent option, without any disadvantage to those who choose it. Nobody will be required to use the digital route.
Document authenticity is checked digitally: The law introduces digital authenticity checks (Echtheitsprüfung) for travel documents. Verifying documents digitally makes it significantly harder to use forged or fraudulent passports and identity cards at German airports.
Your personal data is kept to a minimum and deleted within three hours: Data processing under the new system must be secure and collect as little personal data as possible, the law uses the phrase "möglichst datenschonend" (as data-sparing as possible). All data collected during the process must be deleted no later than three hours after the passenger's flight departs. These are not policy intentions, they are written directly into the legislation.
Before the final vote, the Bundesrat, Germany's upper house representing the 16 federal states, submitted formal comments and raised two specific concerns. First, it asked for "data protection redundancies" to be removed, particularly in the data processing provisions of the amended Aviation Act. The federal government agreed to examine this.
Second, it asked for the legal basis to be clarified for processing travel documents from Switzerland and European Economic Area (EEA) countries such as Norway, Iceland, and Liechtenstein. These nations are not EU members but have special agreements with the EU, creating a specific legal question about which rules apply to their citizens' documents. The government said it would clarify this further during the legislative process. Neither concern blocked the law from passing.
The Greens argued that airlines, private companies, would for the first time be permitted to access data from passports and ID cards that was previously restricted to government authorities only. They also questioned whether a time saving of at most one minute per passenger justifies this, and criticised the coalition for holding no parliamentary hearing on the bill before the vote.
Die Linke argued the law's primary purpose is to cut airline staff costs rather than genuinely benefit passengers, raised unresolved data protection questions, and also noted that no parliamentary hearing was held.
Germany's new law creates the legal foundation for digital passenger processing at its airports. You may soon move through check-in, baggage drop, and boarding digitally, but you will never be forced to, and you must actively consent before the system applies to you. The traditional process stays available to everyone. Your data must by law be minimal, secure, and deleted within three hours of your flight departing. And digital document verification makes the process more fraud-resistant than before.
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