NEW DELHI: Marking a major milestone for India’s digital public infrastructure, the Digi Yatra app has facilitated more than 10 crore seamless journeys across airports in the country.
The facial recognition based system enables passengers to enter airports without the need for physical documents.
According to an official release, the app has recorded more than 2.4 crore downloads across iOS and Android platforms since its launch. “The platform stands as one of the most successful digital innovations in global aviation today,” it said.
By replacing manual document verification, the platform has reduced average airport entry processing time from 15 seconds to just five seconds per passenger. This faster throughput has significantly optimised terminal infrastructure, reduced congestion and minimised manual processing overheads.
“Furthermore, by eliminating physical boarding passes, the initiative supports environmental sustainability by saving thousands of sheets of paper daily across participating airports,” the release added.
Reflecting on the milestone, Civil Aviation Minister Ram Mohan Naidu said, “It reflects the growing trust passengers are placing in seamless, paperless and contactless travel. The scale of Digi Yatra’s adoption comes at a critical juncture. Daily domestic passenger traffic, which averaged below 2 lakh passengers in 2014, has now crossed the 5 lakh mark on numerous occasions over the last three years.
“The annual passenger traffic across Indian airports is projected to reach 50 crore by 2030 and double to nearly 100 crore by 2040. To effectively manage this exponential growth, we are adopting multiple digital solutions such as Digi Yatra, Self-Baggage Drop Facility, augmentation of Air Traffic Control automation systems, the AirSewa portal for grievance redressal and AI powered digital twins to optimise airport operations.”
Naidu added, “While many nations continue to evaluate the large scale deployment of biometric passenger processing, India has successfully operationalised and scaled Digi Yatra within a remarkably short timeframe.
Currently, Digi Yatra is active at 38 airports, and 27 more airports will be enabled by next year. I am also pleased to share that the major greenfield airport projects becoming operational this year, Navi Mumbai, Jewar and Bhogapuram, will all be fully Digi Yatra enabled.”
Emphasising his vision for ease of flying, the Minister said: “Digi Yatra currently supports 11 languages, and by the end of this year, we plan to add 11 more regional languages. This directly advances the Prime Minister’s vision to democratise aviation and make air travel truly accessible to the common man.”
