Explained: How 'Digi Yatra' reads one's face as the boarding pass

On Thursday, Civil Aviation Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia launched Digi Yatra, a facial recognition technology-based system to provide a hassle-free travel experience to air travellers.

First announced in October 2018, the scheme was formally rolled out at airports in Delhi, Bengaluru and Varanasi on Thursday. A beta trial was carried out at airports in Delhi, Bengaluru and Hyderabad from August 15 and the working of the app was fine-tuned based on passenger feedback. Let us take a look at how it works:

How does Digi Yatra benefit passengers?

It enables paperless and contactless processing of passengers at various touch points — terminal entrance, security check and boarding gate. Apart from saving time, it also brings more convenience. While passengers take up to 20 seconds to enter the passenger terminal at Delhi, with the Digi Yatra app the time taken was five seconds, the trial showed.

At the launch, Scindia said Digi Yatra will be one of the most efficient systems in the world.

How does Digi Yatra work?

Participation in the Digi Yatra scheme is voluntary for domestic passengers at present. Those opting for it will have to download the app, register, link Aadhar details, take a selfie and upload boarding pass before travel.

With Digi Yatra, a passenger can skip the queue and use a dedicated e-gate, scan a bar-coded boarding pass and look at the facial recognition system to enter the terminal. A similar contactless processing is carried out at the security check and the boarding gate.

What about passenger data security?

Scindia said that in view of privacy concerns, there is no central storage of personally identifiable information. A civil aviation ministry press release said that passenger ID and travel credentials are stored in a secure wallet in the passenger’s smartphone itself. The uploaded data will utilise blockchain technology and all data will be purged from servers within 24 hours, it said.

Which other airports will have Digi Yatra?

In the first phase, the system will be rolled out at seven airports. Apart from the three airports where it debuted, Digi Yatra will be available at Hyderabad, Kolkata, Pune and Vijayawada by March 2023. Later, it would be implemented at more airports across the country.