What determines when an airline ask for ID at boarding?

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There are multiple possible reasons for checking ID:

  • Immigration status: while normally not required for internal Schengen flights, there may be “temporary reintroduction of checks” at some borders. This may result in increased checks before boarding (by the airline or some other agent) and/or checks at the destination (by border police). So this will depend on the origin/destination pair.
  • Security: some countries require all passengers to have been positively identified to match the data on the booking. This is the case of France for instance (they dropped it for a very short while and then it came back extremely quickly). Some countries require it (or used to) only if you have checked luggage.
  • Airline policy: to avoid people reselling or otherwise transferring non-refundable tickets to other people, they may check that the name of the booking matches your ID. Depends on the airline, and may depend on the actual fare.

Also, remember that most airlines outsource ground operations to local agents which work for many different airlines. To simplify training, those agents sometimes apply the same rules for all airlines they serve even if there is not required.

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