Digi Yatra international passenger trials begin at seven airports
The Civil Aviation Ministry has launched trials for e-passport holders on specific international flights, with a full rollout planned for 2027.
The Civil Aviation Ministry announced on Sunday that trials for the Digi Yatra facility for international passengers have commenced at seven airports. These locations include Delhi, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Cochin, Mumbai, Chennai, and Amritsar, according to reports from The Hindu, Telangana Today, and Outlook.
The trial period, running from November to December, is available to Indian nationals with e-passports flying on certain international routes operated by Air India and IndiGo. In Chennai, the Airports Authority of India (AAI) has started testing the service at one gate in the international terminal.
The facial recognition technology is designed to allow contactless movement through terminal entry points, Security Hold Areas (SHA), and boarding gates. The ministry stated that the system is meant to assist rather than replace current travel processes, and passengers must still complete all immigration and airline document checks.
To use the service, eligible travellers must generate a Verifiable Credential (VC) via the Digi Yatra mobile app. This requires scanning the Machine Readable Zone of the e-passport, using Near Field Communication (NFC) to read the embedded chip, and capturing a selfie.
The Digi Yatra platform currently serves over 26.5 million users and has facilitated more than 110 million journeys across 39 domestic airports. Feedback from these international trials will be used to plan a wider rollout of the technology in 2027.