Aviation minister asks Delhi, Bengaluru airports to install DigiYatra at all boarding gates

Union Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia

Civil aviation minister Jyotiraditya Scindia on January 18 said that he has asked the airport operators of Delhi and Bengaluru airports to install DigiYatra service at all boarding gates for domestic passengers.

"We have seen close to 300,000 downloads for both the DigiYatra and DigiLocker mobile applications since its launch," the minister said at the sidelines of the 14th International Civil Aviation Conference organised by Assocham.

He added that nearly 4 percent of all daily domestic passengers traveling out of Delhi and Bengaluru use DigiYatra while traveling, while 20 percent of all passengers use the application while traveling from Varanasi airport.

Scindia added that the government is pushing for the adoption of DigiYatra across airports across the country and has asked airlines to make announcements about the application on board.

He also said that the government is pushing for the use of the application through social media.

Around 52,000 passengers have used DigiYatra since its launch, PK Thakur Deputy DG, Ministry of Civil Aviation added.

Scindia also said that the ministry is working to have DigiYatra printing on the boarding pass of passengers and also advertise the application on display boards at the airport.

DigiYatra has been launched at three airports in the first phase – Delhi (Terminal 3), Bengaluru, and Varanasi – and will be launched at other airports in a streamlined manner.

The second phase of the DigiYatra launch – at Hyderabad, Kolkata, Pune, and Vijayawada airports – is expected by March this year.

The facility will allow passengers to link their travel and identity documents and create a facial scan beforehand, doing away with the need to produce boarding passes or identity cards at the entry gate of an airport.

The facility aims to make the boarding process seamless from the entry point until the embarkation point on planes. All that a passenger needs now is to scan the bar-coded boarding pass, then show their face to a facial recognition camera to authenticate themselves; then drop their baggage, or proceed for security check and boarding.

The service is available for users of both iPhones and Android-based smartphones.

A passenger has to register details on the DigiYatra app using Aadhaar-based validation and a self-image capture. Then the boarding pass has to be scanned and the credentials are shared with the airport.