Indians can fly seamlessly with Aadhaar-linked air tickets from next year

Domestic flyers will soon get to fly without any hassles out of Kolkata, Ahmedabad and Vijayawada by next year if they link their Aadhaar number to their air tickets at the time of booking. The Airports Authority of India (AAI) will implement the government's "digi yatra" programme as a pilot project next year from these three airports.

Reports state that the AAI will eventually roll out the Aadhaar-based seamless travel experience at other airports soon after the three cities. 

Flyers, under the Aadhaar-based system, can use their stored biometrics to prove their identity to enter terminals. The passengers' Aadhaar-linked airline database will show what flight they are booked on and then their linked airport databases will show they have been security screened and allowed access to boarding gate closer to the flight departure time.

Under the system, the passengers will not be required to show paper ID cards, paper tickets and boarding cards to the airport security and officials for verification.

"This solution provides the passenger an option to enter Aadhaar number while booking. At the airport entry, an E-gate will read the ticket's bar code containing ticket information and Aadhaar information," AAI chairman Guruprasad Mohapatra said.

"The system will authenticate travel details and the passenger will present biometric for Aadhaar authentication. On successful authentication, the E-gate will open," he added.

Through the linking, flyers can access several services like check-in and security check by using their QR code, the AAI chairman further said.

"Thereafter the passenger can access services like check-in, security check and boarding using QR Code or biometric. Passengers opting for an identity other than Aadhaar will have to go through the manual process of verification by CISF at the entry gate. Digi yatra will enable more services to be delivered as self-service," Mohapatra stated.