Record year for the Calypso Open Standard

Transport ticketing association reveals rising demand for solutions that deliver cost-efficient, flexible, easy to use ticketing for infrequent travellers 

Brussels, Belgium – 7 April 2025: The Calypso Open Standard, governed by Calypso Networks Association (CNA), the global community of transport ticketing players, enabled more than 4 million mobile activations in 2024 (600,000 in 2023) and shipped more than 97 million transport cards (52.3 million in 2023), new data reveals today.  

The association also disclosed: 

• More than 48.8 million travel smartcards shipped in 2024 were based on Calypso Prime; the multi-application, multi-service smartcard specification, up 5% from 46.5 million in 2023.  

• Calypso Light, focused on transport ticketing for regular and occasional users, events, and access control, increased more than 9 times , growing from 4.8 million shipments to 44.3 million in 2024. 

• Shipments of Calypso Basic, launched two years ago to provide cost-efficient contactless paper tickets for infrequent travellers, quadrupled from 1 million in 2023 to 4.3 million in 2024. 

• 2024 also saw three times the number of mobile ticketing applications, based on Calypso host card emulation (HCE), rising from 500,000 in 2023 to more than 1.5 million in 2024.  

Gianluca Cuzzolin, Chairman of CNA, commented: “These results demonstrate the essential role of the Calypso Standard within today’s ticketing ecosystem, and cements the association’s position as a major player in this space. Calypso Standards are giving operators and authorities the foundation they need to create sovereign systems that provide reliable, convenient and highly secure ticketing for all passengers. Behavioural changes are driving a need for more cost-effective solutions that better serve occasional passengers, creating rising demand for Calypso Light and Calypso Basic, and significant growth in mobile activations.”  

In 2024, CNA also enabled the first – and so far, only – European ticketing application in the Apple Wallet. The Navigo travel card from Île-de-France Mobilités launched before the 2024 Paris Olympic Games. It empowers passengers in the region to easily buy and validate journeys for all types of tariff systems (such as zonal rates, monthly passes, pay as you go) in the Apple Wallet. Navigo is also available in the Samsung Wallet and all Android devices using Calypso HCE.  

Yann Chermat, Chief Operational Officer at CNA, added: “As Navigo demonstrates, the Calypso Standard is at the forefront of digital ticketing, providing interoperable solutions that align with existing legacy infrastructures. Advancements are defined by our global member-based community, which progressively drives innovation that enables an ‘integrated plug and play’ framework. Calypso’s independent approach, free from propriety vendors and card scheme control, is therefore continuing to gain adoption as it promotes competition while lowering the total cost of ownership.” 

An estimated 40 million journeys – every day – are delivered by the Calypso Standard, which is deployed in over 170 cities across 29 countries worldwide. CNA provides software development kits (SDKs), most notably the open-source Eclipse Keyple, as well as independent certification and a licensing open framework, alongside best practices guides, to help implementors achieve mastery of their technical systems. 

Anyone with an active interest in ticketing can contribute to the evolution of the Calypso open standard. To learn more and join CNA’s global community, visit www.calypsonet.org/become-a-member