How to use Digi Yatra at airports for travel without boarding pass/ticket

The Indian govt introduced a new service in India that is meant to make air travel much easier. The new service is called Digi Yatra. It will allow passengers to move to different parts of the airport without carrying a boarding pass or a ticket. It is built in order to achieve contactless, seamless processing of passengers at airports based on Facial Recognition Technology (FRT).

The Digi Yatra service was inaugurated on Thursday and is currently available only at three airports. The feature will be rolled out to other major airports as well. Initially, Digi Yatra has been introduced at New Delhi, Varanasi and Bengaluru airports. 

How to enroll for Digi Yatra

A passenger will need to create Digi Yatra ID in a central system by providing their details and documents. 

The list of details includes:

1. Name, 

2. Email ID

3. Mobile Number

4. Details of Identity (Voter Id, Driving License, Aadhar etc)

On submission, a Digi Yatra ID will be generated. The traveler will be able to quote this number while booking the ticket. The data of the traveler, including Digi Yatra ID will be passed on to the airport by the airlines.

During the first travel, the traveler will have to go to the registration kiosk at the airport for validating the ID. In the case of Aadhar, the verification will be done online. And for other IDs, a CISF personnel will manually verify. On successful verification, the photo of the passenger will be added to Digi Yatra profile in the central system. 

After enrolling for Digi Yatra, the process within the airport gets seamless and won’t require any boarding pass or ticket. 

Here’s how Digi Yatra will work:

• The ticket will be needed at the entry point. The passenger will need to show the ticket or boarding pass (both digital and physical will work) 
• The apparatus will scan the boarding pass or e-ticket 
• On scanning the bar code/ QR code the system will validate the passenger details and flight details.
• Then Digi Yatra ID will verify the identity by Face Recognition.
• On successful verification of the ticket and Digi Yatra ID, the e-Gate will open. 
• Once you’re inside the airport, the Face ID and ticket PNR are merged into a single token for the rest of the journey at the airport.
• The passenger will be able to gain entry to the security area and aircraft Boarding through e-Gate that will be operated using a Facial Recognition System. 

Digi Yatra Benefits

The primary benefit is not having to show the ticket or boarding pass at every stage of airport travel. Additionally, the airport operator will have real-time information on the passenger load which will ultimately help with resource planning. The airlines will also know the passenger position in the airport.