Digi Yatra's international pilot project likely in June: CEO Khadakbhavi

The international pilot project of Digi Yatra, which allows passengers to check-in at the airport using facial recognition technology, is likely to take off in June next year, Digi Yatra Foundation CEO Suresh Khadakbhavi said on Tuesday.

Currently, the Digi Yatra facility is available for domestic passengers at 24 airports across the country.

“We will add 4-5 more domestic airports to our network in the coming months,” he said at CAPA India Digital Aviation Summit 2024.

About the international debut, he said, “We are planning an international pilot project in June 2025 between two countries. We don't want to overcommit. However, we are working in this direction.”

This pilot project will be conducted with the help of foreign passengers who hold electronic passports (e-passports). India has not yet launched e-passport, which contains an embedded microchip storing biometric data, such as fingerprints or facial recognition, for enhanced security and seamless travel.

“Countries within the European Union, Singapore, etc have launched e-passports. A significant number of their citizens hold such passports. So, the pilot project will be done with their involvement,” Khadakbhavi mentioned.

India will need to develop bilateral agreements with other countries to implement Digi Yatra with those countries. “They will share their (passenger) credentials with us. We will share our (passenger) credentials with them before this passenger has reached their immigration counter,” he mentioned.

He admitted that the Foundation earlier did not focus on communicating with passengers regarding privacy. “We will now conduct a social media campaign to assure passengers that we do not store their data anywhere. We are now focusing on messaging in a big way. We have got support from various stakeholders, including airports,” he noted.

Currently, about 6.3 million people have enrolled on the Digi Yatra app. “We are adding 25,000 to 30,000 people per day on our app. By the end of this year, we estimate we would have 10 million people on our system,” he mentioned.