Facial Recognition For Entry To Indian Airports. Here's How It Works

The Airports Authority Of India on Thursday launched the Digi-Yatri service that will provide contactless entry to passengers at airports by using facial recognition technology.

The new service will ensure "contactless and seamless" processing of passengers through various checkpoints at the airports using facial features to establish their identity which could be linked to the boarding pass.

The facility is now available on Delhi's IGI Airport, Bengaluru's Kempegowda International Airport and Varanasi's Lal Bahadur Shastri International Airport.

Here's how the process works.

Passengers need to scan the QR code on the boarding pass with the mobile Digi-Yatri app to create travel credentials using Aadhaar and upload an image of themselves.

At the airport, they can scan their boarding pass and the e-gate will capture their face and match with the information uploaded by them.

Once verified, the gates will open and the passenger can move to the security check area and boarding gate where the their face will be captured again. Upon verification, the passenger can move ahead and board their plane.

There is no central storage of Personally Identifiable Information (PII). The passenger's ID and travel credentials are stored in a secure wallet on the passenger's smartphone itself.

The service will be launched at airports in Hyderabad, Kolkata, Pune, and Vijayawada by March 2023. Gradually, the technology would be implemented across the country.