Flying Domestic? Soon You Will Need Only Aadhaar Number To Board Flights
From now, multiple passengers can use biometrics in order to prove identity before the entry to the terminals
This initiative has been taken as a similar act which can be seen in other airports like Schiphol (Amsterdam), Brisbane and Hamad (Doha). This will let the multiple passengers enter the Indian airports without flashing their identity cards. They can easily clear the check-in process through fingerprints and iris scanning.
On this, the civil aviation ministry has also introduced the process of linking the databases of the respective airlines and airports with the IDs of passengers. These IDs may include the Aadhaar Card and the passport numbers. Hopefully, in the upcoming few months, passengers will need just a mobile phone to board the domestic flights in India.
R N Choubey (Aviation secretary) told Times of India that on entering the terminals at the airport; the passengers will be able to use biometrics to prove identity and there is no need to show ID cards and all. Additionally, there is no need of showing the flight ticket or e-ticket as the airline database will show the details of the flight they are booked on.
On a small level, this process has been tried at a few gates of the GMR-owned Hyderabad airport. Along with that, the Bengaluru airport (owned by the Fairfax and GVK group) is also using the biometric information-enabled checking points for swift check-ins.
Guruprasad Mohapatra (Airports Authority of India (AAI) Chairman) has told Business Standard that “Wipro has been told to study whether such an integrated, e-enabled platform can be developed so that all airports can use the database to enable the biometric entry facility across Indian airports.”
What will be the whole procedure?
On entering, passengers will witness a special kiosk that will scan the hand of the passengers to match his or her ID. To authenticate the passenger with a show of his or her hand, a boarding pass embedded with the Aadhaar number or a copy on a phone can be shown.
At the boarding gate, the passengers will be provided with a paper stub with flight details on identification by hand.
On the other side, passengers without Aadhaar number can still enjoy the option of identification by the existing paper procedures.
IMPORTANT POINTS:
- Either the passengers have been through check-in or the security check gates can easily be confirmed through the airport databases. And that also before allowing access to the boarding gate closer to flight departure time.
- There is a need for passports to travel in case of international passengers.
- This new initiative will definitely cut down the time of the passengers which they used to devote while standing in queues and other formalities.
A ministry official has stated that “Linking Aadhaar numbers to air ticket bookings is certainly an option but the ministry will not make it mandatory for booking air tickets; we cannot do it. We can ask airport operators and airlines to inform passengers about its benefits, but it cannot be enforced now, according to Supreme Court guidelines.”
Plus, the airline companies have asked the ministry to make Aadhaar compulsory for booking tickets.