Facial recognition Check-in to begin at select airports soon

The first phase of the Digi Yatra project, which allows passengers to check in at the airport using facial recognition technology, will commence at Bengaluru and Varanasi airports on August 15. The project will be launched at airports in Pune, Vijayawada, Kolkata, Delhi and Hyderabad next year.

Union minister of civil aviation Jyotiraditya M Scindia’s office tweeted, “In a bid to digitise air travel in India… held a senior-level meeting of the consultative committee… to discuss Digi Yatra and its implementation. 1st phase of Digi Yatra is all set to be launched August 2022 at Varanasi and Bengaluru airports.”

Under the Digi Yatra project, a passenger will pass through various checkpoints at the airport through a paperless and contactless process, using facial features to establish the identity which would be linked to the boarding pass.

A statement issued by the Press Information Bureau (PIB) stated, “The Airports Authority of India (AAI) will identify the airports where Digi Yatra would be implemented in phased manner.” The civil aviation ministry said the project will use a decentralised mobile wallet-based identity management platform that is cost effective and addresses privacy and data protection issues.

The Digi Yatra Foundation (DYF) is a joint venture company looking to define the criteria for compliance and guidelines for the local airport systems from time to time and also conduct regular audits of guidelines on security, image quality and data privacy etc. defined by the Digi Yatra guidelines for the local Airport Biometric Boarding Systems (BBS).