Come February, your face will be your boarding pass

Come February, a brief pause at the airport entry will help travellers to have seamless access to their aircraft.

The government has identified facial recognition as the biometric that will be used to give passengers paperless entry to airports for travelling within the country.

Under the Digi Yatra initiative, the passengers will be identified using the facial recognition system at various checkpoints such as airport entry gates, check-in counters, baggage drop points and at the boarding gates of aircraft.

“It is a very forward-looking, futuristic initiative and India would be the first to implement it at a national platform,” Civil Aviation Minister Suresh Prabhu said.

Digi Yatra will do away with the process of presenting the air-ticket as the identity cards at multiple points in airports, Prabhu said adding that the process was entirely voluntary.

To avail of the Digi Yatra facility, passengers will have to register themselves on a website of the civil aviation ministry using identity cards such as passport, driving license or Aadhaar cards. On the first visit to an airport, the passenger will have to verify his identity at the security kiosks that would capture the facial biometric to create a Digi Yatra Id profile.

The Bengaluru and Hyderabad international airports will roll out Digi Yatra in February next year. The Kolkata, Varanasi, Pune and Vijaywada airports will follow suit in April.

Prabhu sought to allay fears about breach of privacy saying that the trip data of passengers would be purged from the system one hour after the departure of the aircraft.

The initiative will limit the human interface for air travellers at airports to security checks thus helping speed up passenger handling.

The airport operator will have real-time information on passenger load and help in the better planning of resources.