IndiaTravel and aviation2022 – ongoing

Digi Yatra Foundation

Facial recognition entry and boarding at Indian airports

India's face-scan airport boarding spread fast, but a survey found 29% of enrolled flyers had signed up without knowing it

In progressIndependent study

Problem

Indian airports faced long queues at entry, security and boarding gates, where staff checked identity documents and boarding passes by hand at each step.

Approach

Digi Yatra, run by a not-for-profit company owned by the Airports Authority of India and five private airports, launched on 1 December 2022 at Delhi, Varanasi and Bengaluru. Passengers register through an app linked to their Aadhaar identity and then pass gates by face scan instead of showing documents. The app was built by a Hyderabad start-up chosen through a government innovation challenge, and the system expanded to more airports in 2023.

Results

29%enrolled flyers who said they were signed up without knowing itIndependent study[1][2]

15%enrolled flyers who signed up because they could not find the regular queueIndependent study[1][2]

Takeaway

Gate sign-up practices partly drove rapid enrolment at the expense of informed choice. Critics questioned face-data oversight because the private non-profit operator falls outside India's right-to-information law.

Sources

'Didn't find regular queue': Fliers still confused about DigiYatra, reveals survey
Business Today28 Jan 2024News article
Digi Yatra still ruffling feathers among air travelers, but keeps growing
Biometric Update29 Jan 2024News article

Source summaries

[1]Business Today28 Jan 2024

LocalCircles received about 21,000 survey responses on DigiYatra, then running at 13 airports. About 29% of enrolled flyers said they had been signed up without knowing it and 15% said they joined because they could not find the regular queue. The survey followed the aviation minister's statement that face capture at kiosks requires consent and that DigiYatra is not mandatory.

[2]Biometric Update29 Jan 2024

The trade publication repeats the survey findings and describes the scheme's growth plans. It reports the foundation CEO's goal of covering 90% of Indian air passengers by March 2025 and plans for more airports and automated immigration clearance.

Full details are in the original sources.

Added 25 Oct 2026 · Updated 25 Oct 2026