Visakhapatnam: In a significant move to further streamline air travel across India, Union Minister for Civil Aviation, Kinjarapu Rammohan Naidu, today inaugurated the Digi Yatra facility at Visakhapatnam International Airport. Simultaneously, the minister virtually launched the service for eight other Airports Authority of India (AAI) airports, including Coimbatore, Dabolim, Indore, Bagdogra, Ranchi, Patna, Raipur, and Bhubaneswar.
The Digi Yatra initiative, designed to offer a seamless, paperless, and contactless travel experience, allows passengers to pass through airport checkpoints using Facial Recognition Technology (FRT), significantly reducing the time spent managing multiple travel documents. At the launch, Shri Naidu emphasized the convenience of the system, noting that airport entry times have reduced from 15 seconds during manual processes to just 5 seconds with Digi Yatra. To date, over 55 lakh users have downloaded the app, and more than 3 crore passengers have already benefited from the system.
Since its initial launch on December 1, 2022, at airports in New Delhi, Varanasi, and Bengaluru, Digi Yatra has now expanded to twenty-four airports, with the latest nine additions.
Naidu underscored Digi Yatra’s importance during the COVID-19 pandemic, when the need for contactless travel solutions became urgent. He remarked, “Digi Yatra has not only minimized physical contact but also saved thousands of sheets of paper daily, aligning with our broader commitment to sustainable development in aviation.”
On data security, the minister reassured passengers that Digi Yatra prioritizes privacy. He stated, “There is no central storage of passengers’ Personally Identifiable Information (PII). All data is encrypted and stored on passengers’ smartphones, shared only with the origin airport, and deleted within 24 hours of departure.”
The Digi Yatra system represents a transformative step in India’s aviation sector, improving the passenger experience while upholding privacy and sustainability.
Also present at the event via video conference were Union Minister of State for Civil Aviation Murlidhar Mohol, Civil Aviation Secretary Vumlunmang Vualnam, and AAI Chairman M. Suresh, along with other dignitaries, including Visakhapatnam MP Sribharat Mathukumilli and Andhra Pradesh MLA P.G.V.R. Naidu.
