Have visa rules ever made you skip a trip? According to IATA's 2026 Global Passenger Survey, released Wednesday, you're far from alone. IATA, the trade group for the world's airlines, asked more than 10,000 travelers in over 200 countries about how they fly, and 43% said a country's entry requirements had put them off visiting, up from 33% last year. At the same time, more travelers than ever are getting through the airport with a face scan, and about half have used AI to plan a trip.
Entry Rules Are Putting People Off
The jump in travelers deterred by entry rules is the survey's biggest change from last year. Most of them aren't put off by the cost of a visa or by privacy worries. Of the people who said they'd been discouraged from visiting somewhere, 53% blamed a process that was simply too complicated, while 17% pointed to cost and another 17% to privacy.
Travelers mostly want to get the paperwork out of the way at home. Sixty percent would rather apply for a visa online, compared with 25% who prefer going to an embassy or consulate in person, and 86% say they'd share their immigration details digitally before they leave.
"Passengers want to apply for visas online and complete immigration procedures before they reach the airport," said Nick Careen, IATA's senior vice president for operations, safety and security. He added that more than 100 countries issue eVisas, the online versions, "yet there is little consistency in how they are checked." Airlines have a stake in this, since they're usually the ones checking your documents at the gate and are on the hook if someone without the right paperwork gets on the plane.
Travelers in North America were the least likely to say entry rules had put them off, at 35%. In Africa, more than half said they had been.
Face Scans Are Going Mainstream
Biometrics, like boarding with a face scan instead of showing your passport and boarding pass, are spreading quickly. Fifty-eight percent of travelers used them somewhere on their trip in the past year, up from 50% last year and 34% in 2022. North America leads, at 63%, and people mostly like it: 87% of those who used biometrics were satisfied.
Most travelers would go further, too. Seventy-eight percent would share their biometric details to skip showing a passport or boarding pass at checkpoints, and 84% are interested in a digital passport, a secure version stored on your phone, for checking in online. The worry is what happens to the data. Fifty-nine percent of travelers named data breaches as their top concern, and North Americans were the most worried about it.
Half of Travelers Have Used AI to Plan a Trip
Forty-nine percent of travelers have used AI tools for trip planning, mostly to search for flights (21%), hunt for the cheapest ones (19%) or get ideas for where to go (17%). Use was highest in the Middle East, at 72%, and lowest in Europe, at 35%. In North America it was 47%.
IATA's message to airlines is to make sure their flights actually show up in those AI answers and to make it easy to go from a chatbot conversation to a real booking. That's worth remembering when you use one: an AI tool can be a handy starting point for finding routes and comparing options, but the price and the rules on your ticket are whatever the airline's own site says when you book, especially while fares are climbing.
Global Passenger Survey 2026
of travelers say entry rules have put them off visiting a countryUp from 33% last year. Most say the process is too complicated.
Survey of more than 10,000 travelers in over 200 countries by IATA, the airline trade group.
Contrail
How Happy Are Travelers Overall?
Fairly happy, by this measure. Eighty-seven percent of travelers said they were satisfied with air travel, up one point from last year, which IATA calls an all-time high. North Americans were at 85%, up three points. Europe was the only region where satisfaction slipped, to 84%, the lowest of any region.
Keep in mind who's asking. IATA represents the airlines, and its takeaway is that governments should simplify entry rules and agree on common standards for digital passports so travel gets easier. Plenty of travelers would agree with that part, even if a lot of the frustration they feel day to day, from delays to fees, is down to airlines themselves.
