Soon Your Aadhar Will Be Your Boarding Pass! Paperless Flying Is Coming To India!

Imagine taking a flight from any major airport in India without having to produce a physical copy of the boarding pass, waiting in long security queues for manual checking and frisking or waiting to get your passport stamped.

All you need to do is share an image of your face along with your fingerprint scan at a designated kiosk located at the entrance of the airport and then simply walk through the airport and board your flight. The security checks will be automated via the automated body scanners and high-end cameras to run the background check and match your face and fingerprints with an existing database like Aadhaar.

A system which is implemented at airports in cities like Miami, London, Frankfurt, Dubai, and Sydney will soon become a reality in India.

The government will approve of this paperless flying experience by the end of this month. Once its approved airports all over India can start implementing this system. In fact, This hi-tech movement could start being implemented by July at the Bangalore and Hyderabad airport.

Bangalore and Hyderabad airports have implemented this pilot project successfully and could be the first airports to adopt this system in the coming few months. Airports Authority of India (AAI) has started preparing bid documents and will issue tenders which will be available for bidding by the end of this year.

However, the existing paper-based boarding system will still be there since linking Aadhaar to air tickets is not be mandatory.

This system is being developed under the air transport IT and communications service provider SITA and have named it ‘Smart Path’. Smart Path uses biometrics for identification along a passengers journey through the airport. It can be integrated easily into an airlines system and airport infrastructure.

To implement this system airports will need to install self-service equipment like check-in kiosks, baggage dropping units and specially designed gates for secure access and boarding. When implemented this system will make quick deployment easy and cost-effective. Smart Path helps airport authorities by finding data about passengers directly from the government’s database. This will allow greater transparency during immigration and border checks.

This system will make it easier for passengers who link Aadhaar to air tickets at the time of booking.  Passengers can breeze through the airport since they will only need their phone to show e-boarding pass at the security check and the boarding gate which will be scanned.

Apart from passengers, it will also help airport security and staff to identify the authenticity of the passenger and their ticket. Once the flyer is granted entry, the passenger will go through biometric authentication while clearing security and then at boarding gates, thus streamlining the whole security process at the airport.

The paperless initiative is being adopted all over the world, and we at AirWhizz, are continuously working towards implementing it in India because we believe that flying paperless is the future of air travel.

If you want to know more about how flying paperless will be beneficial for you, follow the link!