AAI plans cashless payment tool for pilots

After providing cash-less payment system for air services operators across 95 airports in the country, the state-run Airports Authority now plans to take the technology on-board to facilitate pilots' easy payment clearances, a senior government official has said.
The proposed WiFi-enabled system will facilitate pilots to make various airport-related payments like landing and navigation fee, etc from the cockpit by using any international credit card, Civil Aviation Ministry's joint secretary G Asok Kumar said here.
Kumar, who had rolled out GPRS-enabled electronic data capture (EDC) machine at the Begumpet airport here for cash-less payments at the just-concluded India Aviation Show here, said a trial run is already going on the Panjim airport in Goa currently for chartered flight operators and the same will be rolled out at other airports in due course of time.

"Last year, 1,171 chartered flights had landed at the Panjim airport. The proposed system will make private airlines, chartered flights, tourists and others more welcome. We want to be pro-active and make them more comfortable," Kumar said.
Stating that in these changing times and mindset, governments must play the role of a facilitator as well, Kumar said this hassle-free mechanism will result into more chartered flights to Goa and other tourist hotspots.
The EDC is a point-of-sale terminal for submitting and validating credit card transactions to a merchant account provider, or some other credit card transaction processor.

The national airports operator had first introduced the cash-less payment system for various airport charges at Mumbai's Juhu airport last September.

Before introduction of the system, flight handlers and pilots were required to carry huge amounts of cash. Often, air traffic control personnel had to collect the money, and it was laborious for them to complete the formalities, Kumar explained.
The facility reduces the workload of the AAI staff as it will help check fake currency and enable transactions in a more transparent manner and in real time.